


The Force is With Me

by ChidiChidiBumBum



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Angst, Arguing, Banter, Bickering, Big deal, Children, Concussions, Crying, Cute, Dynamic Duo, F/M, Finn is Jesus, Finnrey, Fluff, Force-Sensitive Finn (Star Wars), Future, Giving Finn what he Deserves, Good, Good Writing, Hopeful Ending, Identity Reveal, Jedi, Jedi Finn (Star Wars), Jedi Training, Jedi Training (Star Wars), Loss of Parent(s), Love Confessions, Name Changes, Near Death Experiences, New Jedi Order, Original Character(s), Power Dynamics, Regret, Royalty, Smut, Villains, Visions, converting, hero - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-13
Updated: 2020-01-26
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:42:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 29,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22213513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChidiChidiBumBum/pseuds/ChidiChidiBumBum
Summary: He used to be a Stormtrooper for the First Order, now he's co-general of the Resistance. He is known as a hero and a big deal all around the galaxy along with his friends. However things begin to change when he finds out that he's much more than what he thought he was. He's exposed to a whole new world and has his friends to help him every step of the way. Together they create a new Rebellion, built off hope, and become the righteous legacies the galaxy was made to have.This is his story.
Relationships: Finn & Jannah (Star Wars), Finn & Rose Tico, Finn/Rey (Star Wars), Jannah & Rey (Star Wars), Lando Calrissian & Finn, Lando Calrissian & Jannah, Poe Dameron & Finn, Poe Dameron & Rey, Rey & Rose Tico, Zorii Bliss & Poe Dameron
Comments: 33
Kudos: 26





	1. The War is Over

**Author's Note:**

> Hello fellow readers! This is something I'm working really hard on (something I intend on finishing as well). We all know there was so much potential in Finn's character that was wasted in the films and I just wanted to write something that generally focuses around him because he doesn't get enough credit for his actions. So here I will credit him.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Resistance is done fighting, with no more threats they begin to rebuild for a New Republic.

The war is over, the First and Final Order is gone, the galaxy is at peace. No more death, no more pain, no more suffering. For the first time in a long time, they can rest.

The Resistance isn't as crowded as it used to be. There are still many people, but not as much as before. Still, Finn and Poe push past those in their way to get to the command center. Poe pushes and shoves people while excusing himself meanwhile Finn apologizes to everyone he bumps into even if he is kind of in a rush. Though there is nothing to rush about, the excitement running through their veins gives them the adrenaline to want to blurt it out in front of everyone. The source of the excitement lies in Poe's hand, it's a blueprint that contains something he and Finn have been discussing for a while now and finally decided to make public with the rest of the Resistance.

Finn stops in the crowd at the thought of Rey suddenly crossing his mind. He looks to his right getting a strange feeling in his stomach that tells him to go that way despite his business with Poe at the moment. He turns his body and makes his way down the rocky path where less people seem to be. There are tall trees surrounding him as he goes deeper into the forest. Pretty soon the only color he sees is green. He hears the laugh of small children and can almost visibly see them run past him with big smiles on their faces, but he knows for sure there aren't any children around here. However seeing them overwhelmed him with the feeling of hope. The winds blow stronger as they past through him, suffocating him with the sweet smell of nature. It blows through the trees and makes the leaves dance with the branches above him, creating the sound of psithurism. He questions where he is going and why he is still going that way, but he trust it's for a good reason. Most of his instincts have been good to him, he doesn't have a bad feeling about where he's going anyway. As he reaches a corner, the loud rustle of leaves and branches calms and he can hear someone humming a song in the distance. 

The song is soft and soothing, like the purpose of it is to make a person feel good, it's beautiful melodies swirl around him like birds and put him in a trance state of hope. He sees Rey sitting with her legs criss cross in the middle of a grassy open field leaves from the trees dancing around her with the rhythm of the song. The sun gleaming on her and radiating her fair soft skin. The wind surges around her whistling as if to sing along, passing through her hair and clothes. Finn always found her beautiful, but here she looks heavenly almost as if she has been reborn to be cleansed from the troubles of the past. He's just happy to see her there, living and breathing, finally at peace with herself. Her spirit spreads a warmth through his chest that travels through his entire body. She had just become a Jedi not long ago, the only Jedi left. She thought it was pointless to continue her training, but Lando encouraged her to keep going. On her temple sits a butterfly closure bandage to heal her head wounds, shes still getting over her concussion from Exogal. Her eyes are closed, she remains calm as a smile pulls at her lips. She knows he's there.

"That's beautiful." he says mindlessly, still mesmerized by the angelic characteristics of her voice. Rey's eyes open and she looks at him, squinting past the glare from the sun beaming on her, a spark in her eyes. "Where'd you learn it?" he asks.

"My mother used to sing it to me." she tells him. "I remember her humming it before she.. _you_ know."

Finn nods his head understanding, he smiles at her knowing how much better she's been after finally finding out who her parents were. He wishes he knew his..or at least had a memory of them. It would be nice to know where he came from, even Jannah just found out Lando is her father - which is awesome by the way, it feels like Finns the only one who doesn't know his parents and he feels a little left out because of it. Everyone has a second name except him. He's just..Finn.

Rey gets up to her feet and walks towards him with smile, looking deep into his eyes like she always does. She really does look at him like no one ever has, even now after all the amazing people he's met. There's just a different type of love and adoration they have for each other that they can't find in anyone else. However her smile descends into a frown when a thought crosses her mind. "Um..Finn? I have something to tell you." She admits, her eyes shifting between both of his as she twiddles her fingers nervously.

This concerns Finn. He takes a step towards her, getting rid of the distance between them, and asks. "What is it?" 

"Back on Kijimi I was told something I didn't want to believe but it turned out to be true...Palpatine is my grandfather." She confesses looking down at her hands afraid to see the reaction she thinks he'll give.

Finn is surprised by this, but it doesn't change anything. "Is that how you did the lightening thingy?" 

"Yes." She nods after a long pause like she wasn't expecting him to say that of all things. "That's how I did the 'lightning thingy.'" Her eyes begin to water as teardrop trickles down her rosy red cheek. She lifts her head to look him in the eyes, revealing the redness in hers as her lips begin to quiver. "He killed my mother and my father..his son. Just like Kylo did to-"

He grabs her hands hating seeing her like this. It makes his heart fling to his throat so he can't swallow and his stomach twist and turn forever. She's ashamed of herself when she has no reason to be. "Rey, to me, it doesn't matter where you came from. Either way you're the one I ran into back in Jakku, you're the one who saved me from those rathtars and saved the entire galaxy from Palpatine _and_ the First Order! His blood may be running through your veins but you are _nothing_ like him. You're Rey..say it."

She huffs the air out of her nose and shakes her head looking away from him."..I'm Rey." She says softly.

"No." he shakes his head. "Say it louder."

She chuckles at how ridiculous he is behaving. "Wh- Finn-"

"Louder!" There is a point to this.

"I'm _Rey_!" she giggles with more emphasis, she looks at him with wide eyes as she says it. Almost annoyed that he wants her to embarrass herself, even if nobody is around.

"Louder!" he shouts squeezing her hands. He looks up at the sky and hollers to encourage her. "I'M FINN!!"

"AND I'M REY!" She screams loud enough for a million galaxies to hear. Creatures around them pause to look as the trees, grass, and leaves blow away from the pressure of her voice. 

Finn smiles at her and places his hand on her shoulder proudly. "Don't forget that."

She smiles at him, a twinkle in her eyes as she opens her mouth to speak but is interrupted by the call of his name from Jannah. Rey looks past him and waves as he turns around. "Finn, Poe is looking for you and he's not happy that you're not where you're supposed to be."

"Oh kriff." he swears. He looks back at Rey who isn't sure what's going on. "Come on, Poe and I have some news for everyone." he tells her before running to follow Jannah back to the command center. This time there isn't a crowd of people all over the place, everyone is in the center gathered around Poe who is babbling about how Finn is supposed to be there.

Finn, Jannah, and Rey make their way to the center of the circle and Finn crosses his arms standing next to Poe who looks at him with an annoyance that can't be hidden. "Where were you? I had to stall these people until Jannah went to get you." he whispers.

"Sorry," he apologizes. "I was..with Rey."

"Doing what?"

"It doesn't matter, I'm here now right?" 

"Actually it does matter because I've been here for about ten minutes and people are already tired of hearing my voice." he rambles. BB-8 beeps at him reminding him to focus on their agenda. "Right, okay. Hello everyone!" Poe shouts to the crowd of people colored in grey with expressions of bemusement on their faces. "I hope you all are having a great day-"

Finn nudges him. "Get to the point."

" _I'm_ getting there." he whispers irritably. "So..Finn and I have created a plan here." he slams the blueprint down on the table that everyone surrounds, they all lean in to see what he's showing them. It's a sketch of a building with their Resistance symbol above it. Finn rolls his eyes because that's not what they're there to talk about, that's just something Poe wanted to add; it's less important.

"What is it?" Rose asks curiously. 

"Well, Rose, I'm glad you asked. This is what we will be doing.." 

Finn steps in to speak. "The war is over but there's a lot of damage left behind from us and the First Order."

As Poe begins to talk everyone shuffles in interest wanting to hear more about this plan. "Now that the First Order is gone we will start helping people out. There are planets out there that have been demolished by the Order and need a lot of help rebuilding, others are being invaded by the last members of the Order. We can help them, that's what we're here for."

"What if no one wants our help?" Kaydel wonders.

"Anyone will say yes to an extra hand. If they don't want us to build we'll help them in other ways such as providing food and shelter until everyone gets back on their feet." Finn answers.

It's quiet for a while, there's a sense of conflict and doubt traveling around the room then people start to talk in murmurs and debate on whether this is a good idea or not. Poe shakes his head at the mutters and places his palm on his forehead. Finn looks at Rey to see what she thinks about it. She looks at him, her ears lifting up with her eyebrows and shoulders. "I think it's a good plan." Her opinion raises silence around the room. "As members of the Resistance we're supposed to be a symbol of hope. What's more hopeful than helping citizens rebuild and stopping planet invasions?"

"She's right." Lando claims catching everyone's attention. "These people need motivation to keep their legacies on for generations and generations after, we just gotta give them a little push."

That seems to put everyone on the same page of agreement with the plan and calms any uneasy feelings towards it. "Good." Poe nods. "I'm glad everyone's on board."

"So what's the blueprint for?" Rose asks.

"Oh this? This is where the fun lays out. Now..I know it's going to be a lot but! I think if we put enough credits in..we can make this our new base and have new equipment and all sorts of stuff because we don't really have the best quality stuff around here - not just talking about technology but bedding as well."

Chewie roars doubtfully in response.

"Okay - well - we can try Chewie! Anything is possible, visual appearance is important."

"Me and the gang have a history of stripping things for parts, maybe we can find some material to help that happen." Jannah suggests.

Poe snaps his fingers and points at her in excitement. " _Yes_! See? We've got this!"

"I'm really confident in this plan." Finn says. "We start by spreading the word, a few pilots will head out to any planet affected by the war and from there we'll help anyone who asks. Let the people know that we're here for them like they were for us."

"I like it." Jannah says.

"Me too." adds Zorii.

Rey nods her head in agreement. "This could work."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm working hard to make this something really good and I actually have a plan for this one. So it will be completed. I'm giving us our Finn rights!
> 
> If you like it show me some love and let me know what you think because I really care.


	2. A Tingle in The Force

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finn opens his eyes to something he didn't believe could happen to him.

X-wings soar in the sky as Resistance pilots head off to their assigned planets to assist. Finn watches with a smile as everyone wishes each other luck on their assignments, he's optimistic on where this is going. Helping these people will remind them that there's still good out there, it'll bring hope that there is a future and it isn't dark at all. That thought alone makes Finn full of joy.

Lando approaches him joining him in his gaze at the sky. "I've got a good feeling about this kid." They look at each other. "Leia would be proud."

This flatters Finn, he smiles at the old man who he admires so much. He wants to grow up to be just like him, in his own way of course. Chewie comes over and roars at them placing his furry hands on each of their shoulders. After spending a year with the Wookie, Finn has picked up on understanding the native language. He has told them the Falcon is ready. Lando turns around and makes his way towards the ship.

He's taking Finn, Rey, Poe, and Chewie back to the planet of Pasaana since they didn't exactly leave them in the best position the last time they were there. Their hoping they can make amends with them somehow. In the distance Finn sees Rey and Jannah having a deep conversation with each other before parting ways, Poe and BB-8 board on the Falcon waiting for him and Rey to join them. He follows them on board, D-O lacking behind him and Rey in their tracks. He can still hear the song in her head echoing through the environment around them. 

He goes into the main hold and grabs himself a seat in the communal space booth as the boarding ramp shut and the Falcon prepared for take-off. Poe stands there in the middle of the room, hands at his waist, lips sucked in, pondering what to do. Now that Lando has taken the pilot seat, it seems he doesn't know what to do with himself. Neither does Rey, but it gives them some time to rest before arriving to the planet. He knows the both of them need it, their always busy either - meditating or planning for the future. Of course Finn assists Poe but he doesn't work as hard on it. When Poe has his eyes on an idea, he doesn't take them off until he's sure everything is done the way he sees it in his head.

"Do you think the people of Pasaana will forgive us?" Rey asks filling the silence.

"They could." Poe agrees. "We _did_ ruin their Festival of Ancestors that only comes every forty-two years so probably not. At least I'd be upset."

"Maybe we can make it up to them somehow?"

All of a sudden Finn feels his heart drop coldly down to his stomach and the world dims around him until he can't see anything anymore. His fingertips feel like ice and he is surrounded by nothing. It is quiet, eerily quiet. He hears a blaster fire and the thud of a body that startles him, it is followed by the screams of innocent people who scream for their lives. He can't see it, but he can feel the situation, smell the environment, and taste the air. It's on Pasaana, there are still stormtroopers left from the last time they were there, he knows it. He recognizes the numbness and monotonous feeling, their lack of emotion that prevents them from feeling any sort of remorse for anyone. They're trying to rule the planet and start a new Order. He hears them demanding the Aki-Aki citizens around, ordering them to do their bidding's while they take their children and raise them as they were raised. No, Finn can't let that happen. They have to know what they're doing is wrong. Some of the children try to fight and escape, they aren't strong enough. He hears a shot fire and can almost feel the burning sensation of a laser ripping through his chest to escape the other side, pushing straight through his heart.

Finn grabs his chest and gasp dramatically finding himself back on the Falcon. In his seat like he had never left. But he was there, he knew he was on Pasaana, it all felt so real. Poe and Rey look at him, startled by his loud inhale.

"You alright?" Poe asks, his eyebrows are furrowed in confusion at what just happened. Finn is puzzled himself, though this isn't the first time he's experienced something like this.

He nods his head scooting himself out of the booth to stand. "Yeah." he clears his throat and looks at Rey who is sitting on a box of cargo. "Um..Rey. Can I talk to you for a second."

She nods her head while chewing on the inside of her bottom lip and gets up to follow him to the tunnel. 

Poe scoffs throwing his arms in the air. "Great more secrets!"

Finn rolls his eyes, the only reason he isn't saying anything in front of Poe is because he isn't sure if it is what he thinks it is. But it feels like it. Could he have the Force? Back at the base he asked Maz how people got it, if it was through family or just something people have. She told him that the Force runs through everyone and picks those who seem worthy and responsible, eventually it gets past down for generations on and mixes with anyone but that wasn't how it worked in the beginning. Finn maybe assumed that the Force was communicating with him, but it never crossed his mind that he might have it. But there is too many times where he's had an instinct about something, too many times where he has heard something before it happened. There has to be more to this story and because Rey is a Jedi who knows how it works, he has to confirm it with her before anyone else.

He turns around to face her when they're far enough. Rey doesn't know what's going on, doesn't know what he pulled her aside for. He touches the tips of his fingers with the tips of his fingers on his other hand and sucks his mouth in. He isn't sure why he is so nervous to admit it. 

"Finn?" she asks. He looks at her. "What did you want to talk about?"

"Well I-" he pauses. "So here's the thing-" he stops himself again. Then he sighs trying to calm down before speaking again. "Lately I've been getting this feeling - like an instinct - that tells me things before people find out. I knew it was Kylo on Pasaana and I know you knew it too. I also knew which Star Destroyer to go after on Exegol and.." he remembers something, the word triggers the feeling, he tried to forget it before because she's okay but..he felt Rey die. The feeling was inconceivable like a punch to his stomach and a kick to his chest. He felt all his energy get yanked out of him as his heart ripped into pieces while beating slower and slower. It hurt everywhere but at the same time he was completely numb. He felt the future die as he fell to his knees, Jannah tried to help him but she became a blur. He couldn't hear anything anymore as his heavy body slammed against the Falcons floor. Right where they are standing now. His eyes were open, he knew he was going to live but he knew it wouldn't be the same. Rey was gone and she took that part of him with her. He whispered her name and she replied back, her voice softer than the feathers on an angels wings. _We'll see each other again..I believe that._

"..I felt you die." he admits through a shaky voice and trembling hands as he relived that horrible day. He looks at her seeing fear in her eyes as she thinks back to it as well. "You were gone..and I..I couldn't get you back."

Rey swallows not taking her eyes off him once. He continues, "I hoped that my instincts were wrong, I hoped that you would come back but..I couldn't feel you anymore. And I guess I always have. It felt different without your presence..it felt wrong. When I felt you again it was like everything was right again, I looked for you and when I saw you..I was relieved more than anything..how did you come back?"

"Ben healed me..the way I healed the vexis snake. Except it took all his life."

Ben? He almost questions who he is until he remembers that is Han and General Leia's son. He was Kylo Ren.

"He died so I could live.."

"Well I'm glad he did - save you, I mean." he says, though it doesn't make up for everything he's done. Saving one life doesn't make up for the millions of others he's ended. Maybe that's why he did it, if anyone had to die it had to be the one who wouldn't be forgiven. It is still sad that Ben Solo never got a chance. 

"Finn..this instinct you feel..how often do you get it?"

"All the time..it's not just instincts either, just now I had some sort of vision."

Her eyes lit up and her eyebrows arch. "Of what?"

"There's still troopers on Pasaana, they're trying to build a new Order and they're using the people to do it." he informs. "I saw it..it felt so real..and it was horrible. You think the Force was showing me?"

"Finn the Force doesn't work like that." she almost laughs. "You have it, you have the Force! That's how you were able to see it!" she beams excitedly. "I feel like I've felt it all along. I was just too distracted by everything else to realize."

"What does this mean?" he asks.

"It means I might not be the last Jedi after all.." a smile begins to cross her face as she feels 

"Me? A Jedi? You think I can do that?"

"Of course Finn! If there's anyone worthy of becoming a Jedi it's you, I can teach you." she says to him, hope glowing in her eyes. He knows it won't be easy but he finds comfort knowing Rey will be with him every step of the way. 

"Hey. Are you two done keeping secrets from me? Cause we're here." Poe interrupts standing in the middle of the tunnel, Rey shakes her head and returns back to the main hold leaving Poe and Finn alone. There's an unusual banter between Rey and Poe that Finn will never understand, they argue as if they hate each other but they really don't feel any anger towards each other at all. Then again, Poe argues with many people.

He looks at Finn, lips pursed as he nods his head in the awkward silence. He clicks his tongue and rest his hand on the wall. "So...wanna tell me what you two were whispering about? Also you never did tell me that thing you were gonna tell Rey back on Pasaana. So I'm left out on _two_ things between you two!"

Finn sighs holding his pointer fingers to his lips. "You're still on that? I didn't even tell Rey what I was going to say so why does it matter?"

"It matters because you're my co-general and I'm the general, I don't like you keeping secrets from me."

"Oh yeah because I'm the only one who keeps secrets _Spice Runner_."

"Hey- don't bring that up. I'm not proud of it." he berates. "As general, I command you to tell me what you were just talking about with Re-"

"I was going to tell you anyway, when we were done talking I was going to tell you. We only spoke in private to confirm if it was what I thought it was and it is." Finn interjects with a sigh. "I'm..Force-sensitive." he confesses.

Poe puckers his lips and changes his stance to both hands on his hips as he squints at him. "Hm..makes sense." he says. "It explains how you knew so much stuff back on Exegol and Pasaana...thanks for telling me."

"You feel better now that I told you?" Finn asks; rhetorically.

"Yes, I do actually."

The Falcon shakes almost knocking them off their feet. The two look at each other, Finn already knowing what's going on heads to the cockpit to see for himself. Poe follows along with Rey who is wondering the same thing. What they see through the window is tragic. The once blue sky's have grown a revolting crimson red, almost as if the blood of the Aki-Aki victims was smeared above to show anyone who comes after what they're about to deal with. It is so red it makes the reflects on the rest of the planet. This isn't the work of stormtroopers, it can't be. 

"What the hell happened here?" Poe asks with a horrified look.

"I have no idea." Lando says. Chewie roars warning them that there are shots being fired towards the ship. Lando sighs. "Hold on tight." 

The ship makes a sharp turn just as a canon fires at them, shooting a giant fireball towards the Falcon. Lando tries to steer harder but the ship is too big and one of the engines gets hit. Rey quickly runs out to try to fix the problem as the ship begins to plummet towards the ground. A red light begins to beep and whale in the cockpit and Finn begins to get a bad feeling about the landing. Chewie roars in hysteria as Poe tries to direct Lando for a good place to land softly. Finn is useless here so he tries to go find and assist Rey, passing the droids who roll in panicking circles around the main hold.

"Danger! Danger!" D-O repeats as BB-8 beeps the same thing. The ground rumbles violently knocking Finn off his feet, he gets up just as the ship stops abruptly sending his body flying forward into the wall where he is knocked unconscious.

_Somewhere in the universe, her hears a baby cry. He feels the infants terror as they yearn for their mothers touch. The emotion is familiar giving him a sense of deja vu. He feels a piece of him get ripped away and is too helpless to do anything. The cry gets louder and comes closer and closer until he feels it coming from his own voice. The tiny fist of baby hands waving in the air and the screaming of two adults._

_"Please don't take our baby! DONT TAKE OUR BABY!" Hollers a woman at the top of her lungs. He hears the struggle in her voice, she is being held back by someone. A man._

_"I'll work for you, take me instead. Just let the child go." Says the man, pleading. "Please-"_

_"Shut up." another voice says, its deep and gravelly voice brings goosebumps throughout Finn and the baby's bodies. He recognizes that voice. The shot of a blaster startles the both of them, the baby still cries. Harder this time, more fear beating in his tired little heart. The woman screams as another blast goes off, then it falls quiet. The only sound being the cry of the infant as he is taken away, far away from his home._


	3. A History

Chewie roars in fear carrying something large in his arms. Finn can barely see as he slowly gains conscious, everything is blurry and bright. The red light still blinking on and off in the Falcon. He sees the blob of Poe Dameron scramble through the room to find something. Whatever it is Chewie was carrying he places it down on the pilot bunk just as what looks to be Rey runs towards it. The lights stop flashing and the beeping silences. Finn squints to try and make his vision clearer but it only seems to make things worse. BB-8 beeps at him rolling into him to wake him up even though he is already awake. He sits up holding the bottom of his palm against his pounding head. The body of Poe blocks his view as he squats down to him pushing something wet onto his head.

"You okay Finn? You took one hell of a fall there." he says continuing to what feels like tend to his wound. Finn blinks his eyes as his vision returns to normal and he can see everything again. Lando is hurt, passed out laying in the pilots bunk. Chewie is trying to treat him. "Rey did you finish fixing the engine?" Poe asks.

"I did, their wasn't too much damage to it. The Falcon should be able to work when we're ready to leave." she informs him helping Chewie with something.

Poe continues to ask questions while aiding Finn. He dabs his head with a cloth. "How's Lando looking? Is he going to be alright?"

"What happened to him?" Finn asks looking at the unconscious man, he hopes he is okay.

"He hit his head but he'll be fine, right Chewie?"

Chewie roars in agreement telling them that he just needs rest. He will stay behind to make sure that he is safe while they're gone. Poe helps Finn get to his feet before placing down the cloth. Finn looks at it for any sign of blood, but it's clean.

"Just a bruise." Poe tells him. "Okay, we should go then before whoever those guys are finds this ship and kills us."

"They're stormtroopers they don't think that far." Finn informs. "They only think about what's in front of them."

"How do you know it's stormtroopers we're dealing with?"

Finn forgot he hasn't told Poe about his vision. He looks down afraid to see the mans expression for another secret he is going to admit. "I..had a vision."

"A vision huh?" he puts his hands on his hips and runs his tongue across the back of his teeth. "..did Rey know about this?"

"Why do you always have to bring it back to Rey? She's not the only person in the galaxy!" 

"Oh really because that's exactly how you treat her!" Poe argues. 

"Guys, we can't argue right now. A planet is literally being invaded so can you two continue this later?" Rey suggest before pushing past the two to board off the ship. Finn looks at Poe not knowing that's how he felt at all. He didn't get why he felt that way, but he supposed they would have to discuss it another time. Finn follows Rey out with Poe lagging behind. When they step outside, they stop to take everything in, it is like they've never been there before. It looks nothing like Pasaana, it doesn't even feel like it. The sunny planet filled with happy spirits seems to be gone. The wind howls in the air yet the don't feel a breeze. The environment is uncomfortably warm like the planet is suffocating.

The three trek out further into the desert with their droids, afraid of what they might find when they reach civilization. They know it isn't going to be good. They are frightened by cries and blasters being shot in the distance. Rey thinks about the children, the little girl she met the last time she was there. Finn feels her remorse, she blames herself for this happening when she shouldn't. She's not the one who ordered the stormtroopers there, Kylo did. 

They travel further into the desert until they reach the tents. They remember being their for the festival, it seemed like such a happier time then. It was a happier time. The tents were barely standing, the cloth with rips and holes tear in them. A clear sign that they were attacked. They walk through the village that appears as a ghost town. Fruits spilled across the sand with splatters of red, Finn kneels down to get a better look at it. Hoping it's from the fruit, but the aura it brings reveals the truth to him. The fruit seller was slaughtered for trying to protect her children. He steps away from the blood stains trying to tune out the screams and cries of them, but it's terror will forever be with him. The wind passes them, whistling a haunting tune through the abandoned scene. Finn can almost hear the Aki-Aki singing their song of the ancestors and see them dancing around. He feels their joy and excitement at another successful year of ancestors. It was their own day of hope and achievement that will only live on in memories now.

Finn looks around some more seeing Rey standing over a collapsed tent staring down at it. He walks over to her wondering what her attachment towards this specific spot is. "Hey.." he grabs her arm catching her attention. But she still keeps her eyes on it. "Are you okay?"

"They used to have shows for the children here..they were so happy and full of life."

He follows her eyes and looks at the destroyed tent, anyone can figure out what happened but Finn can feel it happening as if he's in the middle of it. Stormtroopers barge in taking as many kids as they can. Parents grab their crying children trying to bring them somewhere safe but don't get far enough, they are shot and their children are taken. Finn sees the troopers taking the children just like they were taken all those years ago, they don't even realize what they're doing is wrong. That's the worse part.   
  
"Hey guys!" Poe calls from afar. They turn around to see him standing up on a large hill, he points to the other side. "Come look at this."

The two follow him up the rocky orange hill to see what he was point out. When they get to the top they finally see it. Just below them was an army of troops aligned together with blasters in their hands. Some troopers pass by with the Aki-Aki children and children from other planets, they have ropes around their hands as they are forced to follow their leader. The three duck as a ship soars above them, Finn recognizes it as a stormtrooper transport. It lands below them as troops line up in front of the ramp when it lowers. They raise their blasters pointing it at whatever - or whoever is on there before ordering them to step out. It's people, innocent people. Their heads are lowered and their hands cuffed just like the children. Finn sees the men he was going to leave with back on Takodana, they were captured too. This problem is much bigger than he thought.

"What're we gonna do about this?" Poe asks.

"You're the General aren't you?" Rey questions.

" _You're_ the Jedi aren't you?" He bites. "This is way beyond my jurisdiction. Can't you sense things or get visions like Finn?"

"We need to go down there and get more insight on what's going on." Finn says chiming in before they argue. "There might be more to it than what we think."

"How, we can't go down they'll shoot us." Rey tells him as if it wasn't obvious enough. 

"I've got a plan for that." He assures. He stretches his neck to where the stormtrooper transport is seeing the perfect amount of troopers having a chat. "Follow me." He says jumping down the hill.   
  
Poe and Rey listen not knowing exactly where he is going with this. But when they see the distracted stormtroopers, they get the idea. The three stealthily make their way towards them without being seen.

"So..you hear about that Jude lady?" One of them says to the other two.

"A real piece of work she is, worse than Kylo."

"She's kinda hot." Says the one with the feminine voice. The two troopers stop and look at the one who made the inappropriate comment. 

"The fuck is wrong with you?" They berate.

"She could've heard you! You know she has eyes everywhere-

They're interrupted when Finn, Rey, and Poe knock them out from behind. Their bodies fall on the floor with a clack of their white armor, the three then drag their bodies behind the hill on top of to swipe their armor. They place their unconscious bodies against the hill, sitting them up. Poe is the first to take off one of their helmets revealing the face of a woman with brown skin and shiny short black hair. It's a rule to keep your hair short when you're a stormtrooper. Back in the First Order it was someone's job to keep everyone's hair at a certain amount but this girls hair looks like she cut it herself. The other two were coincidentally men. Finn looks at the helmet, turning it in his hands. He never thought he would have to put the suit on again. But he prefers it be for a good reason than any other. He puts it over his head getting hit with the sour stench of sweat as the foam rubs against his face, he remembers his first time putting the helmet on. He's never felt worth something until that moment, but those feelings then were false. It wasn't what he actually wanted, he wanted freedom. He was just one of the lucky ones to get it.

"Ugh god it smells horrible in here!" Poe reacts in disgust, all the armor almost making him unrecognizable if it weren't for his familiar voice. "You had to wear this everyday?" 

"Yup. They were usually washed often."

"Well these weren't. Let's hurry so I can take this off. I'm already starting to feel light headed."

Finn rolls his eyes at Poes exaggeration then they blend themselves into the army of stormtroopers standing around for some reason. They seem to be waiting for something maybe instructions? But from who? Finn continues to walk as he was trained so long ago, Rey and Poe follow his steps trying to sync with his rhythm in an orderly way. 

"Let's go!" A trooper orders aggressively pulling a woman by her arm. 

"No! I will not stand this!" She yanks her arm out of their grasp and swings her leg towards the crotch area kicking it before running off. 

"HEY!" The trooper yells raising their blaster to shoot, but before the trigger is pulled Rey shoots them down. The woman stops running when she hears the shot fired then turns around seeing the three of them standing over the body. She turns her head keeping her suspicious eyes on them.

"..did you just shoot your colleague?"

"No." both Finn and Poe blurt sticking to their characters. Rey however does the opposite. She takes off her helmet revealing who she is.

"Don't worry, we're not gonna hurt you." Rey softly assures. "I'm Rey."

"Rey?" Her shoulders begin to relax and she suddenly appears to be relieved. "Thank goodness someone heard. I'm Taji, but most people call me Taj." She approaches them and shakes Rey's hand. Finn takes off his helmet, as well as Poe, getting a good look at her. She has light brown skin and purple eyes, her hair is brown tied together in one long braid that hangs over her shoulder. She looks older than them, but younger than Lando. Her eyes are sunken in like she hasn't gotten sleep in years and her mouth hangs low barely held up by her nasal folds. She's wearing a sleeveless black leather vest and dark brown cargo pants with a big belt that she relies on to hold her exposed thumbs. Her palms are protected by fingerless leather gloves, usually used for climbing.

"We're with the Resistance. I'm Poe, this is Finn." He introduces. "Do you know what's going on here? Why the stormtroopers are doing this?" 

"Yes.." she says with a blink, seeming ashamed to admit the truth. "It's my sister."

* * *

Finn, Poe and Rey are distraught. They sit there, helmets in hands, blank stares, listening to the Taj's story as she explains everything to them in a rushed scramble of words that all mushed together to sound like one entirely. Overall, the three are just exhausted they have to deal with this again. The war had just ended and they immediately have another problem to deal with before even getting any progress.

"Wait wait wait, slow down." Poe instructs through tight shut eyes as he shook his head. "What?" 

Taj sighs and speaks again, slower as told. "My sister Jude, she used to be in charge of taking children to raise as stormtroopers for the First Order. But they let her go when she had taken a child for herself. She felt the the child was too powerful to follow orders and wanted to raise them to be a warrior. But they took the child and banished her. Since then she's been planning on taking over the First Order but after the way she had an epiphany to instead create her own army and rule the galaxy." She admits. Poe stressfully rubs his hands against his face at the news. Finn thinks about her occupation, he already doesn't like her for taking him from his family even if she didn't do it physically. She still ordered for him to be taken. But now she's taking other children and doing the same. She has to be stopped.

"If she's your sister..why was the stormtrooper trying to get rid of you?" Rey asks.

"She wants me to join her because my knowledge would be an asset to her position, but I won't. So she ordered me to confinement."

"We have to stop her." Finn blurts standing up. "We have to end this before it begins."

"I agree." Says Taj nodding her head.

"We need a plan first." Poe reminds. "Like Finn said we need more information. We know her backstory, but we need to know how she is go through with this scheme."

There is a brief silence when a ship flies over head, Taj points at it with recognition. "That's her."

The three put their helmets back on and order Taj to stay put whole they see who this woman is. They make their way back to the base, in a more discreet path, seeing things they haven't before. They pass an area filled with children, Finn gets a look at their faces seeing something he didn't expect. They weren't afraid at all, they stood their mimicking the straight posture they were being taught. Blank, mindless, expressions on their faces. They had already been turned. But Finn doesn't understand how, he suspected they were too old to be convinced what they're doing is good. There has to be something more behind this. They return to the crowd of stormtroopers that were just standing around in lines and joined them as the ship began to land. Blowing sand all over them, the stormtroopers remain motionless and unresponsive. They're not as loose as they used to be.

The boarding ramp hisses and lowers into the ground, the ships smoke fills the Pasaana air creating a cloud of gray in front of the dark abyss making it impossible to see. There is only one red light shooting through the smoke from the inside, then a silhouette steps in front of it. It comes forward stepping down the ramp making a click with each step until finally reaching the sand revealing herself. Her hands are on her hips as she stares upon the troops in her dark purple cape. Matching with it is her long sleeve velvet violet turtleneck with an opening exposing her collarbone, her pants black. She has white grey hair styled as a pompadour, her face resembles her sisters with the contrast of her sharp, striking yellow eyes. Those eyes look familiar, horribly familiar.

Her eyebrow lifts up mischievously as she hums with satisfaction. "I'm glad you're all here as I expected you to be." She says, then mutters something under her breath. "We have a lot of work to do, so far we've only gotten people from a few planets. Now that's enough, but my goal is for more than that. I had sent other troops to invade planets to do what we are doing here, I will be demanding the same for some of you. You will go out into the galaxy, find any planet and take over. Let them know there is a new leader and that her name is Jude Groth."

"I think I know who her." Finn says breathlessly. Rey and Poe look at him through their helmets.

Poe isn't sure he believes it. "You know _her_?" 

"I've..heard her voice before.." he tries to remember. Hearing it live in front of him feels like he hasn't heard it in forever. But he knows he had just heard it somewhere today. That deep, gravelly, strained voice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Does anyone like where this is going so far? You gotta let me know 'cause when it's quiet it makes me think I don't have an audience.


	4. That was Easy

"I don't know about you guys but I do not want to repeat what happened on Exegol or anything before that." Poe assures as Jude continues her monologue of plans she has for the troops.

"Me neither." agrees Rey in a whisper. Finn doesn't say anything, but he agrees with them completely. It's just something about the Jude woman that makes him wonder where he knows her from. They raise their blasters and shoot all the stormtroopers in the back before any can react. When they're all down Poe aims at Jude and places his finger on the trigger.

"Don't!" Finn shouts putting his hand in front of the barrel. He shoots her in the leg the same way he shot General Hux in the past and she falls down into the sand grunting in pain. They take off their helmets, each flipping their hair for a dramatic reveal. Jude squints her eyes at them realizing who they are as they walk closer to her until they are standing over her. She looks at them expecting death, but that's not what they give her.

"After Kylo Ren and Palpatine lost you think you can win?" Poe seriously asks, as if the thought of her even trying is hysterical.

"I'm not them." she hisses holding the wound at her thigh

Poe completely ignores her words and lifts her up by the arm. "Yeah, okay, you're coming with us."

Rey and Finn go to the children and adults to let them know they're safe and that they have nothing to worry about anymore. When they get back to Ajan Kloss they will send ships to return them to their home planets. As of now, they must deal with the culprit of the situation. All three of them take off the tight stormtrooper armor and march their way back to the Falcon, annoyed at the complaints and insults this Jude lady is saying to them and trying to block it out with a conversation. When they get back and get inside, they are relieved to see Lando is awake and well.

"Lando!" they shout simultaneously. "Thank goodness you're okay." Poe says with a smile.

"Yeah, I'm not as young as I used to be." he laughs. "I'll just need some rest."

"That's okay-"

"I can pilot for you." Rey and Poe say at once. They both look at each other offended that they'd think the other was going to fly. After a long pause they both speak at once some more, fighting over who should be the in the pilot seat with Chewie. Finn shakes his head at them, not daring to try and stop their ongoing bickering. Instead he squats down to Jude's eye level as Chewie puts cuffs around her hands. He squints at her, trying to get a feel if she recognizes him or not.

"Do you know who I am?" he asks.

Her expression is blank as she blinks at him several times, searching for it in her mind but nothing comes up. "Should I?"

"I'm Finn, I used to be a stormtrooper. FN-2187." he tells her and something clicks in her mind.

Her eyes go wide as she looks at the floor almost dropping her jaw. "I haven't heard that name in years." she says looking back up at him. " _You're_ FN-2187?"

"Yes." he nods.

She chuckles to herself in disbelief. "I can't believe it..I can't believe that I was brought back to you again after all these years." she babbles shaking her head.

"You killed my parents..took me from them."

"You're parents didn't know what you were capable of, I was doing them a favor. If they weren't so stupid enough to get themselves killed." she retorts. "A child with as much power as you couldn't be raised by people like them. You wouldn't know what to do with yourself."

"What're you talking about?"

"You're parents were Ana and Quin Arcter, they were the king and queen of a little planet called Phorro-" Poe and Rey's arguing stopped at the mention of Finn being the product of royalty. "-before it was destroyed. You were their only child, the only thing that mattered to them..and I took you. I used to watch you every night, I just knew there was something special about you. I wanted you for myself." she concedes. This news overwhelms Finn with emotions, he had parents he knew but he never thought he'd hear about them. He never thought he'd _know_ their names. His eyes blur with a pool of tears.

"Ana and Quin Arcter? I knew those guys, we used to hang out all the time." Lando admits suddenly. Finn turns his head to look at him, wanting to know more about where he came from from someone with better intentions. He crawls across the floor to sit in front of the old man, silently urging him to say more. Rey and Poe stand behind him wanting to hear about it as well. "They were the sweetest couple I've ever known, the two were really in love - you didn't know love until you saw them together. They were royal but they never lost their modesty, they respected anyone and everyone. If there was a person who didn't have anywhere to sleep, the'yd let them spend the night. They always put people before them. But I never knew they had a kid.."

A tear runs down Finn's face and he quickly wipes it off, he takes a deep breath. Thankful for getting to know what his parents were like, he knows they loved him very much when they had him. He only wished he could see them again.

"Wow Finn..you're a prince." Poe approves patting his back. "Finn Arcter, prince of Phorro _and_ co-general of the Resistance."

He stands up looking at his friend not feeling like he deserves the label he is given. He may be royalty by blood but he doesn't feel like he is at all. Maybe he just has to get his mind there, however for now.. "I'm not a prince." he goes to sit in the booth as Lando lays back down.

He scoffs. "Tell that to your parents."

"Poe, live him alone please." Rey implores. "Chewie and I are going to pilot." she says before leaving through the tunnels towards the cockpit. Chewie follows her tracks roaring at them.

"Okay, that's fine with me. I'll just talk to Finn." He sits himself beside him stretching his arm out behind him. Finn could feel his eyes and that smug smile on his lips, he can even see it in his peripheral vision. But Poe suddenly frowns and faces forward. "Hey I'm sorry for what I said earlier..about the whole 'Rey' thing." he apologizes. "I know you know she's not the only person in the galaxy I'm just..sometimes it's..hard to see you guys together."

Finn looks at him, a wrinkle of skin in between his eyebrows. "Why?"

"Because!" he shrugs not looking the man in his eyes. "You guys have something, something nice and something real. I don't have that..with anyone."

"We have something?"

Now is when he looks at him, eyes almost bulging out as he holds himself back from asking if he's stupid. "Yeah, you guys have something real special going on. You don't see how she looks at you? Or how you look at _her_?"

Finn shakes his head and looks away, not wanting to get into any of that. There's no way Rey feels any sort of feelings towards him, even if he does for her. She clearly isn't interested in him..right? "I look at her the way I look at everyone."

"No, you look at her like she's the only thing that matters. It's nice Finn. I tried to have that with Zorii but she doesn't want it..I mean she does want it but..she says she doesn't because she's stubborn."

"So are you." He says under his breath.

"What?"

"Nothing." 

They arrive back on Ajan Kloss Lansing the Falcon safely. There is a crowd of people surrounding the ship as always, waiting to see if everyone is alright. The ramp lowers and they all step out to cheers and sighs of relief, Rey helps Lando find a place to relax, Finn and Poe holding each of Judes arms like officers come after everyone else. Silence erupts abruptly in the hangar as everyone looks at her, not know who she is but telling by the way she's being dragged she is not a good person. They cut eyes at her moving out of Finn and Poe's way. They had no idea where to put her where she wouldn't eavesdrop on their shared information. So they instead put her in their supply closet and locked the door.  
  
"Now would be a great time to have that interrogation room I wanted-- which I added to the updated blueprint of the new base. Rose gave me that idea." Poe mentions. "I'm gonna go and send some people out to help those get back to their planets on Pasaana."

Finn nods his head as he walks away, not particularly knowing what to do. But he feels this pressure of energy on his heart coming from the closet door. He looks at it, seeing Jude inside just sitting there. He knows he has the Force, but why was he so special? It didn't make sense, after all the children in the galaxy she wanted him. How strong is the Force with him? He opens the door and looks at her, she smiles suspiciously a single lightbulb swinging above her head as he walks in shutting the door behind him. He leans against it crossing his arms.

"Why me?" He asks.

"I told you, your power-"

"There's something you're leaving out." He interrupts, he can feel the full story hasn't been unraveled. She isn't being completely honest with him, but he isn't surprised because of who she is.

Her gaze falls to the floor, losing contact with his eyes. "I had told you everything already." She lies. "There isn't anything else you need to know."

Finn balances himself on his feet and drops his arms to his thighs. He feels the conflict in her, like a ball of anxiety and trauma aching in her heart and mind. He feels her palms grow sweaty as she swallows hard. He sighs and reopens the door. "I'll come back when you're ready." He says to her before leaving. He closes the door behind him shaking his head. A wave of overwhelming emotions wash over him. He wants to cry and scream at the feeling of his heart punching his chest from the inside. His hands and knees are trembling. That woman killed his parents and all he wants to do is harm her. Just like what Rey had wanted. It isn't like him and he quickly pushes those thoughts away.

"Finn!" Calls a voice. Her looks to his side coming back to reality to see Kaydel in her crutch approaching him. "Good to see you're okay." She says giving him a hug.

He nods. "How's the leg?"

"Eh, I've been through worse." She brushes off. "Anyway Rey is looking for you, she’s in her hideout."

"Thanks. Feel better." He wishes before going to find his Jedi friend. He isn't sure why Kaydel called it a hideout if everyone knows about it. No one is allowed in there but Rey, but it isn't very private. Finn usually watches her from the hanger as she reads the Jedi text. Hunched over with furrowed brows of concentration as her eyes scan the pages trying to figure out the language. She always looks so focused and he admires her for that because the hangar is the nosiest part of the base. Yet she remains peaceful in the chaos, lost in the words of those thick pages that fill her mind with a fistful of info.

He reaches the hanger, ships take off to Pasaana wailing through the sky disappearing in space. Finn sees her speaking with D-O from afar, interested in whatever the droid is babbling about. He makes his way to her and when he's close enough she looks at him and stands up with a smile. He smiled back unable to hold it in, he loves it when she beams at him.

"Hey Prince Acrter." She greets teasingly.

He shakes his head. "I'm no prince."

"I know but..it has a nice ring to it." She shrugs. "Have you thought about what I said? About my training?"

In all honesty Finn had forgotten about all that. So much has happened since they had that conversation, he's had too much to think about since the whole thing with Jude. Rey's bright face dims into a frown at his lack of response, she senses his conflict like he sensed Judes.

"He, the Falcons hyperdrive needs fixing..care to assist me?" She asks changing the subject. He nods his head and they walk together towards the ship. "So how's it feel? Finally know where you come from?"

"I don't know.." he sighs. "I'm happy that I came from such wonderful people..but I don't feel any different. I still never knew them and..I guess I don't feel like they're family."

"You've never known the love between two parents and their child. Neither have I until I started to remember everything..but it still isn't enough as them being here with me. I understand how you feel Finn." She sympathizes as they board the Falcon. "The only family I know is here for in the Resistance." She grabs a small kit of tools that sat on the cargo and makes her ways to the cockpit with Finn in her tracks.

"It's the same for me. I didn't even know I could feel real love until I met you and Poe."

Her lips curve into a soft smile as she unscrews there hyperdrive and her face begins to grow red. "I'm glad you feel that way about me..and Poe."

It's his turn to get red, his cheeks tingle and lock with a sour feeling. "Do you feel the same?"

She stops what she's doing and sighs looking at her feet. She turns to him. "Yes..I do. Finn- I have something to tell you."

This is unexpected. "..okay." He drags unsure what to expect of the next words that will come out of her mouth. 

"I..I kissed Ben."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! If anyone is there I'd like to say a few things about that last line. I personally feel like Rey isn't happy about her decision with kissing Ben that's why she was holding off telling him because it is something she regrets a lot. But in the next chapter you will see what Finn has to say about this..and....
> 
> ...it's a lot.


	5. You Can't Stop The Heat

Finn stands there staring into Rey's eyes. His jaw is barely open in shock, the emotion really lies in his bulging eyes because he can't believe what he just heard. He feels like Rey just chocked him, kicked him and punched him in the stomach. He doesn't know why he feels like this. Why his heart is bumping at an agonizing beat in his heart, why his eyes are stinging, or why he feels a hurricane swirling in his stomach. She grimaces and pinches her finger waiting for a reaction other than the one he is giving. But he is stuck, frozen in a timeless loop where he only hears her last words repeating over and over in his head. She kissed Ben.

"Finn," She shows her teeth, concern in her eyes. "please say something."

That seems to set him free. Her shakes his head vigorously and shouts at her. "You what?!" He knows what she said, maybe he misheard it though. She could've said anything 'I pissed Ben' maybe because he's always angry. 'I hissed fen' whatever that may mean she could've said it. But he knows she didn't, no matter how hard he tries to convince himself. 

"I know." She says. "But let me explain-"

"What is there to explain? You kissed him! _You_ kissed him, put your lips on his after everything!" He berates with his shoulders touching his ears. He stutters, "Wh-wh-what even was the situation- what do you _like_ him now?!"

"No I- no." She assures. "It was when he brought me back to life."

"Wait..on Exegol? You kissed him on Exegol?!" His voice gets louder as he grows more upset by the passing time. She nods her head slowly. "How could you have left that out? Wh- you didn't think to tell me when we were on Pasaana?"

"I didn't think it was important."

"You didn't thi-" he can't even speak because he's so angry. Her rubs at his mouth, trying to calm down before speaking again; softer this time - yet still hostile. "That's pretty important Rey. You kissed a murderer. Even if it was Ben he's still Kylo, the man responsible for millions of deaths and you just let him in like none of that happened!"

"He saved my life!" She argues as if that's enough.

"So what?! If he saved my life you think I'd kiss him? No! Maybe I'd hug him or say thanks but I wouldn't stick my tongue down his THROAT!!!" He can't even bare to look at her. His fury frightens her, her eyes wide as she swallows hard, she's never seen Finn this upset before - no one's ever seen Finn this mad about anything. He shakes his head turning away to leave the cockpit and end the discussion there, on the bad note it is.

But Rey isn't done speaking to him, she follows him through the tunnel. "I did not stick my tongue down his throat, I barely puckered my lips! It was an act of gratitude in a moment of vulnerability."

"No Rey, no!" He grunts angrily feeling his throat tighten. He huffs through his nose and tries to expand the room in his throat with hard swallows.

"Yes Finn, don't act like you didn't do it with Rose!"   
  
He stops, hearing her stop behind him. He turns to look at her with squinted eyes, offended that she compare the situations. "Rose kissed _me_ and I _didn't_ kiss her back. How do you even know about that?"

"I overheard Rose talking with Kaydel after she woke up from her coma. That's besides the point, the kiss with Ben didn't mean anything more than just a 'thank you for saving my life' okay?" she makes that clear then makes her way back to the cockpit.

Now Finn has something to say and follows her back there. "I still won't let it go, after all he's done to all of us! There are so many good people out here and the first person you think to kiss is him? _He's_ the first person you ever kissed."

"No he's not!" Rey retorts snapping her head back at him. 

"You've kissed someone before?"

"Yes, I have and it was with someone I _really_ care about. That kiss meant something."

Finn winces hearing her speak of kissing someone ~~who isn't him~~. His jaw clenches and he grows tense, is this jealousy? He scoffs brushing off what she said even if it is affecting him majorly at the moment. She looks at him with a teasing smirk on her face, he doesn't understand. Maybe she made it up to make him jealous, if so it's working. He opens his mouth to speak but swallows his words. His heart is a little broken at this.

The clomp of footsteps are heard from the tunnel coming into the cockpit, Finn turns around to see Poe standing in the threshold peaking his head in. His expression worried. "Everything alright? We can hear you guys from outside." He looks between the two, obvious tension in the air.

"We're fine-"

"Rey kissed Kylo." Finn blurts, not regretting a thing. She glares at him for throwing her under the bus like that, but he is too upset to even feel pity for her. 

"What!? Rey how could you do that-" he goes on as she speaks over him with exhaustion. 

"Poe, I just had this discussion with Finn and I'm not repeating myself. But the kiss doesn't mean what you think it does."

"Like hell it doesn't!" Poe scoffs. He looks at Finn, seeing pain in the mans eyes. The news has torn him apart. He sighs. "I'm sure I can forget this in time. But right now I'm upset..and I know Finn is too."

Rey looks at Finn through slightly glazed eyes but he doesn't look back at her. "Finn?"   
  
He closes his eyes at her soft voice calling his name, then he looks at her. Her eyebrows are waves of gloom and she radiates the melancholy color of dark blue. His clenches her jaw and her flares his nostrils trying his to keep his lips from quivering. "I just need to know...do you love him?" his says it softly, quietly trying not to show the hostility in his voice.

She shakes her head. "No."

Poe sucks in his lips and leaves the cockpit for them to have some time to talk privately. Finn drops himself in the pilots seat with a hunched back as he continues to look at nothing. He is relieved she doesn't love the man but somehow it doesn't make him feel any better. He can still feel his heart beating in his chest at a sickly rhythm. Rey sits in the co-pilot seat next to him, looking at him.

"We were forced in a bond from Palpatine, neither of us had control over it. I thought I could bring back Ben, bring him home to his mother. But that wasn't my job. When he brought me back to life he was Ben, I saw it in his eyes. Kylo was dead. When Ben died I was sad but only for a moment, I care for him but I do not love him.."

"I'm sorry for getting upset." He apologizes, he can't be mad at her- not forever. "..I may have overreacted."

"It's okay..I would've too." She smiles putting her hand on his shoulder for a moment before getting up to return in fixing the hyperdrive. Finn sits there thinking to himself, now that he's calmed down and the tension between them is diffused. Maybe she can teach him the Force. He knows out of everyone in the Resistance he understands how it works the least. He isn't sure about becoming a Jedi yet, he likes the idea but doesn't think he's capable of it. 

"Hey Rey?"   
  
"Hm?" she hums working at the hyperdrive.

"I want you to teach me the Force."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this chapter isn't long but I just wanted it to focus on the situation. Finn is obviously not happy with Rey for kissing the enemy, but his reaction is based on heartache and he doesn't even realize it. Maybe he will soon?


	6. How the Force Works

Finn stands there in awe as he looks at Rey, watching demonstrate meditation. She's orbiting up in the air with her legs criss cross, hands rested on her knees, eyes closed, leaves and rocks floating around her as she repeats the same words to herself. Be with me. Her soft silvery voice surrounding them both, amusing his ears. She radiates with a warm light that gives off peace and hope. Her eyes open as she flips her body forward in the air, landing swiftly on the ground with the rocks.

"Now it's your turn." She says instructing for him to sit where she had. He does so mocking her previous position with the legs cross cross and hands resting on his knees. She stands in front of him, observing. "Close your eyes and breathe."

Hos eyes shut before taking in a deep breath. "Am I going to float too?"

"No, not yet anyway." She tells him. "Focus..reach out with your mind and make yourself present. Don't think about anything."

Finn tried to do what he is told and not think. He listens to the wind whistling and pushing through the leaves, he can feel the air on his skin, he can see the light of Rey's spirit standing in front of him. "Okay..what now?" He asks.

Rey rolls her eyes. "You're not focused Finn."

"I am!" He argues. "I did what you said I just want to know where it's going."

She sighs and sets herself down in front of him, she grabs his hands, bringing a strange tingly burning sensation on his cheeks, and places then beside him. "You're not present." She whispers softly. "Be here."

He's a little frustrated but he doesn't want to give up on her because he knows she won't give up on him. He focuses more on being there with a little push. Somehow he is able to hear a conversation between Lando and Maz all the way back at the hangar. He can see them standing and talking, hear the footsteps of people shuffling by and the beeping of droids along with C-3PO's constant bickering. He smiles to himself. Then his perspective grows, he's not only watching his friends but he is watching the animals on the planet eat the greens of the trees and grass and bushes. That is life. Other animals survive off eating those smaller than them. That is death. He sees people from Pasaana reuniting with their families, tears in their large eyes as they hold onto each other tight. He feels the happiness in every beat of their hearts. That is hope. There are other families who aren't as lucky to reunite with those they love. Unlike hope, their hearts beat with anguish knowing they will never see them again. That is loss. He feels so much more given to him in tiny whispers, he feels the Force surrounding him passing it's energy to him. He feels the power flow through his veins and feels like he can do anything.

He instincts tingle at his core as he begins to sense something coming. A stick is flying towards him, and it isn't him who called for it. He quickly holds his hand out grabbing it just in time before it hit him. Slowly he opens his eyes seeing the stick in his hand and an impressed look on Rey's face. He doesn't notice she has a stick too. With no warning she jumps high to her feet and swings at him, he blocks it immediately falling to his back. He has no idea what she is doing or why she didn't warn him. She swings her legs above her head using his block to flip herself over, putting the pressure of her weight against their sticks. Then lands on her feet, she walks around and offers her hand to him.

Of course he takes it and she pulls him up with the strength no stranger would think she had. "What was that all about?" He asks.

"It's sparring, to test your reflexes. You're doing very well and we had barely started."

He tries not to seem flattered by her compliment but it is no use in pretending. "Of course I'm doing well, look who's teaching me!"

She turns her head away from him, however he could feel the warmth on her face and the red flushing through her cheeks. The same feeling she gives him. He knows what she is doing, he senses her next move. She swings towards him spinning around, he ducks just as the stick flies only inches above his head then he drags his stick through the air and into her calves where she falls on her back. She grunts at the impact hitting her chest. But she isn't down. She kicks her legs up and throws herself back on her feet. Finn backs away knowing she's going to swing at him, he can see the look in her eyes. She charges at him the same way she did the day they met, her large teeth shown giving him the impression that she's going to hurt him really bad if he doesn't defend himself.

He backs away blocking every hit she targets at him, she swings under him over him beside him and even twirls to get him from behind but he blocks every single one. It's his turn to come for _her_ now. When she swings again he tangles his stick with hers preventing her from trying to hit him at all. He pulls her forward flipping her over him. She falls on her back again, but she doesn't stop and neither does Finn. He swings at her while she's down but she blocks him and throws him back with the Force to give her time to get to her feet. He wants to hassle her for cheating but he has the ability to do it, he just has to know how. That's what she's trying to show him.

The two walk through the forest attacking each other, trying to get at least one hit. But they're both too good. Rey is impressed, she tells him that somehow without saying the words. Their bodies are covered in sweat because neither of them want to give up without a hit or a surrender. But none of them do so. They continue going through the forest not even knowing where they are anymore and are too distracted to care. Finn somersaults behind her just as she swings the stick over her head down to him, he blocks it just in time and pushes her away. The blocking continues with the only sounds being their grunts and the clashing of their sticks hitting each other over and over. The wind around them grows extreme, but not extreme enough to stop them. They are not angry, they are determined. 

Finn continues to strike at Rey, as she backs away he moves closer trying to hit her- in the nicest way possible. They both seem to be too much alike in this situation. None of them see where they are or what is ahead and as she continues to back away, her foot slips off what she thinks is a stair. But it is a cliff. Before she can notice she thrust her stick at Finn pushing him away with all her strength, but all that pressure causes her to lose her balance and she begins to fall backwards into the cliff.   
  
He is dusting himself off when he hears her scream. He looks up with wide eyes as his heart begins to sink. "REY!" He hollers holding out his hand to try and catch her despite being far away. He wishes for her to come back, wishes to see her float safely back on the platform with all his might. However it is no use, his heart plummets with her when he can no longer see her body. He scrambles over to the edge not caring about the pebbles poking through the skin on his hands. He's afraid to look, afraid to not see her. Slowly his head looks over the edge.

To his relief and shock. He sees her there, alive. She's in the air on her back, eyes looking around wondering how it is she is okay. Quickly Finn extends his hand out to her. Rey looks at it and reaches out gravitating toward his hand like a magnet. When he has her in his grasp he pulls her over the edge to safety. She is light like a feather and when she's finally safe he still doesn't let go. He holds her in his arms happy to see her alive but shaken at the thought that he almost lost her. Her head is on his chest, he knows she can hear his thumping heart while she's holds the hand that saved her. 

"I thought I lost you!" He cries through a shaky voice, his hands are trembling as he holds her close. His fingers tangled in her straight her. "Thank god you saved yourself."

"I didn't." She admits with a look of realization in her wide eyes. His thoughts of worry pause for a moment as he looks down into her eyes that glimmer and shine with a light he hopes he'll see forever and ever on. "It was you Finn."

He doesn't understand. How could he have saved her if he was far from her? He couldn't even see her. "Wh- how?"

"The Force," She answers obviously. "you used it." 

He let's go of her allowing her to get to her feet. She holds her hand out to him helping him up as he thinks to himself. He had just saved her life with a thought of wanting her to be okay. He _did_ that, by _himself_. He's never thought he could do anything like that. The Force truly is a magical thing. They start their way through the forest and back to the base.

"I think we've done enough for the day. You spar good for someone who usually uses blasters. Pretty soon you can make your own lightsaber."

"Don't we need kyber crystals for that?" He asks trying to keep up with her.

"We do." She nods. "I have an extra one that I can give to you. It's from Leia's saber, I thought the crystals would be more useful out here than buried in the sand. Luke's is what I used for mine-" she stops when she looks back at him. Her expression going from informative to concerned when she looks at his chest. "Finn..you're bleeding."

He looks down at his chest seeing a tear in his shirt wet with blood. It must've happened while he was reaching out to her over the cliff. Acknowledging it is what seemed to bring the pain to his attention, because the cut starts to sting. Rey cautiously approaches him, holding her hands out to heal him. She closes her eyes slowly bringing her hands to his chest, thinking because he doesn't stop her he's okay with it. But Finn doesn't want her to do that, he grabs her hands before she can touch him and she opens her eyes. Gazing at him with confusion. 

She's very close to him, he can feel the heat of her body radiate on to him and bring goosebumps to his arms and cheeks. They've never been this close without hugging before. "I...don't want you to use your energy on a silly cut." 

"It's okay." She reassures in a soft, calm, whisper, not taking her eyes away from his. Her fingertips tickle his shirt as her hand hovers above the tear, waiting for his permission. He nods his head with a soft sigh and she begins to close her eyes. He watches her hand press against his wound, sucking through his teeth, he tries not to grunt in pain. But the pain begins to fade and the coldness from the exposed inner layers of skin closes, a warmth circulates the area as she opens her eyes.

Her hand still on his chest turning the touch of aid to something more intimate. It brings tingles throughout his body and this fluttering feeling to his stomach. He feels a sudden change in atmosphere, feeling the warmth from his cut spread to his chest as she continues to look him in his eyes. He looks in hers getting lost in them, after a year of knowing the girl he still can't figure out what the exact color her eyes are. Sometimes they are green, other times like honey or even the darkest of browns. Either way they are beautiful to him, if he could stare at them forever he would. As he stares he get this - urge. He's had it before back on Takodona when he was saying goodbye to her. He wanted to kiss her but he never did, he regrets not doing so. Things would've been gravely different if he had, maybe better. He wants to kiss her now and he can almost feel the same want from her, but he can't. The was is over and now may be the perfect time than ever to. But it doesn't feel right..not yet at least. 

Rey feels him hold back and removes her hand off his chest as if his doubt took her out of whatever trance she was in. She takes a deep breath turning back around to continue her way, pretending none of that just happened. He does the same, except he puts this moment in the back of his mind. When they get back, they are greeted by a panicked C-3PO with what seems like bad news.

"What is it?" Rey asks.

"It appears that there are still troops invading planets outside of Pasaana." The droid informs.

Finn and Rey share a look. "Do you know which planets?" she asks.

"Master Poe was moving far too quick for me to keep up. But he told me to tell you that our friends may be in danger on Tolff."

Finn and Rey share another look of concern with each other. Finn knew this work had to be from no one other than Jude.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What a moment they had amiright?


	7. Judas Kiss

Finn closes the door behind him not taking his eyes off the yellow irises of Jude Groth. A woman who has quickly become his enemy. He grabs a cargo box and drags in front of her before sitting down, not breaking eye contact once. Rey is somewhere looking for Chewie and Lando and will let him know when it's time to go. For now, he speaks with Jude.

"Are you ready to tell me now?" He asks leaning his elbows on his knees. She stares at him and he quickly becomes aggravated, he doesn't have time for her games. Whatever it is she's keeping from him could help him get his friends back. He leans closer clenching his jaw to look as intimidating as possible. "I need you to tell me what you know."

Her tense expression grows soft at the hostility in his voice. "I had you for four years before the First Order found out. You were almost there when they took you, I saw the potential twinkling inn your little eyes. I took care of you, raised you with my beliefs. But whenever I ordered you to do something that you didn't believe was right you would shake your head and tell me..no. _Nobody_ tells me no." she chastises. "I punished you by locking you away in a room just like this. I thought that putting you in there would eventually lead to you learning your lesson, but you never did. As always you'd cry and bang against the door but that time..you suddenly stopped. I was suspicious about it but didn't think much of it until the door began to shake. I remember being so thrilled and terrified at the same time, you had finally connected yourself with your power. But you were so loud with the door I had to stop you before you were heard. I looked for the key to unlock the door but it was nowhere to be found. Your door flew open as well as the front door with concerned troops. They took you just like I did years before, but before they did I asked where the key was and you looked at me completely deadpanned. As they took you away, something stung at my hand - it felt like it was on fire.

I remember screaming at the burning pain as I held my wrist tightly, trying to make it stop. I turned my palm up to see the key in my hand, under it was indentation of it burned into my skin. When I looked back up, you were staring at me with those..lifeless eyes that were orange for some reason. You didn't show it but I knew you were happy to see me hurt, I could _feel_ it. You never liked me..I think it's because you knew what I did to your parents. It seems impossible because you were so young..but after what you did to my hand.." she opens her left hand showing him the key mark on her palm. It's clearly old, but it's deep enough to still have the indent after all this time. "I don't think I ever knew how powerful you were til that moment.."

Finn leans back feeling the truth deep in his core. He can remember being in that dark room whenever she punished him. He was scared for his life, breathing in and out rapidly as he looked around for any source of light. But there was never anything. He'd bang on the wall screaming, crying, begging to be let out, promising he'll behave. She never listened. He felt vulnerable in the dark; defenseless. He was horrified mostly because he knew he wasn't alone, he felt the presence of the _old man_ in there with him. That day he felt his large hand touch his little shoulder, taking over his body. That's when the door flew open, that's when the key burned into her hand. After that he didn't really have the Force communicate with him, then he was brainwashed and never felt it again.

It's strange. He almost forgot what it felt like to not feel the Force. The first time he felt it again was on Jakku after they crashed the TIE-Fighter. Something told him to go in the specific direction, he had a feeling it was the right way to go. That's when he saw Rey, he's never felt the Force stronger until the moment he saw her. There was this strange pull he felt towards her, like a connection. But he didn't think much of it because she chased him down.

Finn looks back at Jude, not feeling any pity towards her at all. After what she's done - not just to him but to other children and their families. She deserves whatever bad thing is coming to her. She somehow sees his hate and smirks deviously. "If you think you and your friends can stop me, you're wrong. I've been planning this for years, I've thought of every threat and possible outcome that can happen. You don't stand a chance against me." 

"I think I do." he assures. "Palpatine is gone because of us-"

"Wrong. Palpatine is gone because of the Jedi. The only Jedi left in fact." she seems to realize. "I can get rid of her easily, just as easily as my troops captured your other members."

He starts to think it was a trap all along, just to get rid of as many people in the Resistance discreetly so that there won't be many to fight when they overrun the base. "We're already ahead of you on that. There are people on their way to save them right now."

"Oh you think you know everything don't you?" she laughs. "You don't think we've thought of that when we took them? You're friends are probably on their knees right now..begging for their lives."

Finn stands up immediately, hating how she's tormenting him. He doesn't want to believe her, but she could be right. Poe was in such a rush to get everyone he probably didn't think about the possibilities of a trap. Quickly, Finn exits the closet shutting and locking the door before going to find Rey. He can sense her somewhere around looking for him. They run into each other in the hangar, with C-3PO, R2-D2, and D-O, both speaking at the same time. 

"You first." they both say. "No- you no-"

Finn shakes his head and speaks first not knowing how much time his friends might have left. "I think Poe may have went into a trap. Jude said some things and..I'm not really sure if she's telling the truth or not but I don't want to risk it. Is Lando stable enough to go?"

"I'm afraid not sir." Threepio answers. Rey cut's her eyes at the droid as R2 criticizes him for speaking when not spoken to, distracting him enough for Rey to give her own answer.

"Maz is keeping an eye on him to make sure he's okay. But I haven't seen Chewie anywhere, have you?"

"No." he answers, seeing the disappointment meet her eyes. "You think he went with Poe?"

"I don't know." she shrugs. "But I need someone to help me pilot the Falcon in it's position...you think you can help?"

His eyes grow wide. "Me? I don't know, I've never flown anything before."

"It's just like riding a horse..but with buttons." she promises. "I know it's sudden but if we want to go anywhere I need a co-pilot."

He doesn't think about it long, he just wants to get his friends back safe and sound and if it means he has to fly a giant piece of junk to do it - he'll do it. "Okay." he nods. "Let's do it."

They run into the Falcon - with the droids - rushing into the cockpit. Quickly, Rey sits in the pilot seat with Finn next to her in the co-pilot. He watches her scramble to press buttons and move up levers like a professional, she knows exactly what she's doing.

"Press that button there and push up that lever." she instructs. He does so, following her directions. Whatever she just had him do started the Falcon up, that was much easier than he thought. She smiles at him. "You're a natural."

His shakes his head at her, feeling a flush in his cheeks he hopes it isn't visible how much she makes him glow. She presses a few more buttons while the Falcon hovers above the ground preparing for take-off, then it soars up through the blue sky. Finn watches the sky change from baby blue to midnight as they enter space. Stars lighting their way as they fly through the atmosphere to rescue their friends on the planet Tolff. He's never heard of this planet but is curious to find out about it, there are so many things in the galaxy he hasn't seen yet- Rey neither. Maybe, one day, they can venture off together to see all the planets in the systems..maybe.

"You never _did_ tell me.." She suddenly blurts.

He looks at her puzzled, she is staring ahead into space (literally). "Tell you what?"

Her eyes travel down to the buttons in front of her. "What you wanted to say to me on Pasaana..in the sand. You still haven't told me."

"Oh." he blinks looking away from her. "I'm surprised you remember that...after everything that's happened."

"It's been in the back of my mind since you told me you would tell me later. It _is_ later now and..we _are_ alone if you don't want anyone else to know." she looks at him timidly, he can see her eyes from his peripheral vision. He clears his throat preparing to speak, even though he knows he isn't going to. He isn't prepared to tell her what he wanted to then. He thought he was dying so of course he wanted to let her know that he..that he..loves her. She doesn't have to know that now. But he has to tell her _something,_ she might get offended if he doesn't. She moves her head towards him, urging him to confess and pressuring him to make something up.

Once again, he clears his throat. "Well - you know - when we were sinking I thought we were dying and.." he trails off trying to think of something she might believe. "..I wanted to tell you - that..I hope we see each other again in the next life - if there is one." he says finally coming up with something. Rey looks down, not entirely sure if she believes what he said. He can feel the doubt in her but instead of burdening him for the truth she nods her head and faces forward to continue to steer. They fly off to lightspeed.

Silence falls between them bringing Finn back to the thoughts of his past. He thinks about that dark room he was always put in, but what haunts him the most is the _old man_. He remembers that being the name he gave him, but he knows now that it wasn't just an old man. It was Palpatine. He doesn't know how he knows that..but it just feels right. 

"I have something else to say." he admits catching her attention. She looks at him. "Ever since Jude told me about my parents I've slowly been remembering my childhood before I was in the First Order. I remember there was this presence of an old man who'd always appear in the dark, he was always trying to get me. One day he did..he took over my body and made me hurt Jude. I could be wrong..but I think it was..Palpatine."

The mention of his name makes Rey go limp. Her face sinks and she is almost reliving the horrors of the war that had ended just three weeks before. "Are you sure?" she asks looking back up at him.

Finn nods his head. "I felt him leave me before I was registered to be trained as a stormtrooper, I don't remember anything else after that. But he was always after me terrorizing me and haunting me when I was little..especially in the dark."

"Hey," she places her hand on his to comfort him. "he's gone now. He won't be terrorizing anyone anymore."

He smiles at her as she squeezes his hand. Just as C-3PO waddles himself in. "Oh good, we're here!" he exclaims. The two look out the window seeing Tolff, a surprisingly purple planet.

Rey flies the Falcon inside giving them a good look at the planet. The ground is a amethyst color, the sky is a mix of dark purple getting lighter until it appears pink by the horizon. There are as many stars as the galaxy above them and a single moon with a light blue ring around it. The planet is breathtaking, it makes it upsetting that it's being invaded.

"There! I see Poes X-wing." Rey points out.

"Ah yes, the Hwell village which is just ahead." C-3PO answers. "I heard great things about this place! The air is rumored to smell of flowers-" he rambles, as usual the two ignore him. Ahead of them is a small village that almost looks like Pasaana with all of its tents except further ahead there's a big palace. "Of course, the palace of Hwellya Oon. A wonderful woman known for her-"

"Threepio- Threepio, as much as I'd love to hear about this place, we need to focus on saving our friends first." Finn reminds.

"Right, my apologies sir."

Rey begins to land the ship down a few yards away, instructing Finn what buttons and levers to push and pull. When they finally land, they get out the Falcon ordering the droids to stay put in case something happens. They both know C-3PO isn't the fastest when it comes to running. They step down the boarding ramp and get a look around the environment. Threepio was right, the aroma of the cool air definitely is of floral scent. It makes Finn want to constantly breathe in because of how wonderful it is. They start their way towards the village, preparing themselves for whatever. When they get there it is, like Pasaana, a complete ghost town. Silence with no sound but the whistling of the wind.

Finn and Rey investigate the tents and tiny homes finding no sign of life or struggle whatsoever. This is suspicious. Finn keeps his hand by his blaster, not liking how odd this is. After a while of finding nothing they begin to assume C-3PO got the coordinates wrong. They start to head back when they hear blasters going off in the distance. They both reach for their blasters and hold them up. The shots are being fired from the palace that they seem to have approached unintentionally. They look at each other before making their way up the glassy purple stairs cautiously aiming their blasters at the large doors at the top. But there are many many stairs to go up, eventually they realize they have to go up a little faster. They run up the stairs and before reaching the doors they burst open nearly knocking them down all the stairs they just climbed. Out comes Poe, Jannah, Rose, and BB-8 running down. But they stop at the sight of them.

"Finn? Rey?" Poe asks, surprised to see them. "What're you guys doing here?"

"You guys are alive!" Finn gasps with excitement hugging each and every one of them.

"Yes, we're fine." Rose assures. "Just got in a bit of trouble, but no one is hurt."

"We should go now." Jannah says. "I'm sure Ma'dam Hwellya isn't going to be happy with how we left her palace."

"We saved her people, I'm sure she wont get mad about the little mess we made." Poe guarantees as they all walk down the stairs. BB-8 beeps saying that he unnecessarily threw vases at troops. "Aren't you supposed to be on my side BB?"

"So it was a success? You guys fixed everything before anything bad could happen?" Rey asks, speaking to Rose and Jannah.

They nod. "Turns out the Queen has a shelter in her palace in case something happens so everyone was safe. The troops didn't find them, but they were still in the palace. So we exterminated them." Jannah explains.

"Really? Jude told me you guys were in danger." Finn says with confusion.

Rose shrugs. "Maybe she thought things were going well. How can she know if she's locked up anyway?"

They return back to their ships and make their way back to AJan Kloss to the Resistance base. Relieved to see their friends alive and in one piece, Finn thinks about maybe going in for another round of meditation with Rey. He wants to float like her. But then he remembers something..where is Chewie? Rey didn't see him back at the base and he wasn't with Poe or anyone. The last time he saw him was just before he went to train with Rey. Something isn't right.

The Falcon lands and they board off to see him running towards them in a panic. He roars so many words at them it's hard to understand him, but it is clear he is scared.

"Slow down Chewie." Poe begs. "What happened?"

The Wookie roars some more explaining the whole thing. Someone was there at the base, they took him and threatened to tell them where their sister was- wait what? Sister? Finn and Poe share a look before running to the closet where Jude is kept. But she's not there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> About the 'old man' who is Palpatine, he wasn't just looking for Rey during that time but he was looking for other Force-Sensitives with just as much power to absorb their life energy - hence him being alive in TROS (my explanation for it in this story at least). With Finn he had taken some of his power to give himself a little bit of life, making it easier for Finn to get brainwashed as a stormtrooper. But the good in his heart still overpowers that leading to him escaping and blah blah blah we've seen The Force Awakens.  
> Just an explanation in case of confusion.


	8. Back to Jakku

Months and months have past with no hear of Jude Groth. The galaxy has mysteriously been at peace. Poe has never been more happier, they didn't necessarily rebuild a new base but they gave it a fancy upgrade. Lando has gotten better and the planets have been able to progress to what they were before the war. Rey's training with Finn has been successful and he's caught up to her fast, it almost seems like everyone has forgot about Jude. They assumed Taj came to get her to put her somewhere where she won't hurt anyone since it's been so quiet. But Finn can't help but think otherwise, if Taj wanted to keep Jude herself she wouldn't have to threaten Chewie or sneak her out while they were gone. It's all too suspicious to be nothing. Poe keeps telling him not to worry about it, he's just happy he doesn't have to fight anymore, still Finn thinks about it..everyday. Something is coming, he can feel it.

Finn holds Rey's ignited saber in his hands. Helmet over his head preventing him from seeing what's ahead. But he can sense the training remote in front of him, moving from left to right to confuse him. However the Force is on his side, he takes a deep relaxing his muscles. He senses it's next move. He quickly twirls around swinging the saber just as a laser is shot, he blocks it immediately and it bounces back somewhere into the forest. He keeps in mind that Rey is watching from somewhere and tries not to aim towards her. The remote debates its next move, trying to trick Finn by orbiting around him. It shoots again almost getting him, he hesitated for a moment. He's beginning to grow exhausted from all this concentration. When it shoots again, it hits him in his shoulder. He grabs his shoulder, trying to distract himself from the stinging by putting pressure against it. The remote shoots again, not at all waiting for him to be prepared. Still he is able to block with his hand still on his shoulder. The pain fades away and grips the saber with both of his hands. He is done playing with the droid and wants it turned off. He removes the helmet off his head dropping it to the floor. Making his way towards the remote it shoots rapidly at him, lasers bounce off the gold lightsaber in his hands as he blocks every shot. He reaches out his hand and pulls it towards him, quickly he turns it off before it can shoot at him again. Finn sighs with relief that that nightmare is finally over and tosses the dead remote on the ground. He shuts off Rey's lightsaber and breathes to catch his breath for a moment. 

"That was good," says Rey's voice from somewhere. It bounces off the trees around him making it hard to navigate where she is exactly, but it almost sounds like she's above him. Finn looks up and around to see her sitting on a branch of the trees under a shade of leaves. She playfully swings her legs and smiles when he spots her. "And I know you don't like me saying it but...you'd make a good Jedi."

He winces at the word, unable to imagine himself in that position. After his exposure to Palpatine at such a young age..becoming a Jedi doesn't seem like the thing for him. "I'm not meant to be a Jedi." he states looking up at her. 

"I think you are." she suggest. "It's no coincidence that we both are the only ones around here with the Force - _and_ we're the strongest ones with it." The lightsaber in his hand shakes then flies to hers as she stands up on the thick branch. 

"It's not about my strength, I don't want to get pulled to the dark..it almost happened before and I don't want to go through that again." he explains. "Becoming a Jedi just makes me more vulnerable to the dark side then I already am."

Rey's head lowers at him in doubt. "You really think any of us would let you go to the dark side?"

"Well..no..but..that doesn't mean it can't happen."

She holds out her leg and jumps to another thick branch on another tree closer to him. "Finn..we won't let that happen, I promise. If you don't want to be a Jedi fine, but by becoming one you could start a new Jedi Order. We both could..together."

That all sounds very sweet to Finn. The idea of him and Rey teaching children to become strong warriors is, in itself, a good thing to do. But by the history of previous Jedi Orders that haven't ended well, he can't be sure that this is a good idea. "How can we be so sure it'll be successful?" he looks up at her but she isn't where he last saw her.

"I saw it." she blurts from a tree behind him. It's amazing how she got there so fast. "I had a vision..it almost seemed too good to be true but..it was real. _They_ were real."

"And it was us? Together?"

She nods her head trying not to let a smile curve at her lips, but it does anyway. It doesn't sound impossible and if she saw it, it isn't impossible at all. Finn can kind of see himself by her side teaching children the ways of the Force. But that all depends on the choices made now, it can easily change with the littlest of acts. Anyway, it doesn't make sense to learn the Force if he's not going to be a Jedi. He might as well become one.

He looks up at Rey once again not seeing her where she was last. He hears the leaves shuffle as if somebody is traveling through it. She seems to be too distracted by the forest jungle gym to pay attention to what he's saying, if he wants her to listen he's going to have to after her. He finds two trees with thick trunks next to each other with enough space between for him to jump back and forth on. He does so, jumping high between trees until he finds a branch to grab. The branch isn't very thick but it holds him up, he swings his legs over and gets to his feet looking around for her. He sees a figure swing from one branch to another behind a curtain of line green leaves. He follows it, jumping to another branch just before the one he is on gives in and falls forty feet below. There's another shuffle of leaves from behind him. Finn turns around seeing no sign of Rey or anything out of the ordinary.

"Looking for someone?" She asks from behind. He shrieks at her voice and his foot slips off the branch, his body nearly goes with it but she grabs a hold of his arms before he could fall. "Sorry, I didn't mean to frighten you." She swears with amusement on her face, helping him regain his balance. They both sit down letting their legs hang below the branch. Just ahead of them is the Resistance base hangar. Finn can see the Falcon parked just a few yards ahead, Rose tinkering with an X-wing, C-3PO and R2-D2 bickering a far, Lando speaking to Jannah, and rebels passing by. They look like tiny little creatures from where he's sitting. He sees Poe looking around frantically, he speaks to people who respond with the shake of their heads. He's looking for them.

Rey looks at him and sighs. "Guess it's time to go.." she says supposedly before jumping down to the ground. Unlike Finn, her skill level gives her the ability to land on her feet from high places. He isn't there yet, sticking the landing from a high jump is already difficult enough for him. But he knows once he gets there everything else will just flow easily.

He watches her run up to Poe and sighs himself. He never thought he'd have to go back to Jakku and he can't imagine how Rey must feel about it. They didn't exactly leave with well wishes goodbye and since she found out about her parents she has moved on from it; still, she had a life there. A life she's been hoping to forget, she now has to go back to. Finn drops himself down each branch until he's close enough to leap to the dirt on the ground just where Rose is tinkering.

She looks up at him and smiles. "Hey Finn, looking for your blaster?" She asks rising to her feet.

"Yes I am." He nods. She turns her back towards him for a moment while she gathers his things. Since Jude isn't a problem the Resistance has had enough spare time to upgrade their weapons and ships like Poe wanted. Rose has taken it upon herself to upgrade rather than to find parts on planets. Finn put her in charge of upgrading weaponry as Jannah is in charge of the ships. She hands him Hans old blaster, the EL-16 blaster rifle he gave him so long ago. It looks different nos, what was once silver metal is now white and orange.

"Here you go." she smiles. "I've upgraded the heating system so the rapid fire should be able to last longer. But it does have a little kick to it. I also gave it a little paint job too."

"I like it, you're really owning up to this whole upgrading thing." He compliments inspecting the blaster that shines in his hand. "It almost looks brand new."

"Well - you know.." she shakes her head brushing off what he says, a hint of red highlighting her round cheeks. "I've gotta be good for _something."_

"You're good for things, this is just something you're _really_ good at. When I get back I'll bring you more material for stuff like this." _  
_

"Bring me something good." She instructs. He nods assuringly tucking the blaster into his belt before going off to join Jannah, Poe, Rey, Chewie, and C-3PO in the Falcon.

In the main hold, he settles himself down in the communal space next to Jannah while once again Rey and Poe argue on who should pilot the Falcon this time. As they scream at each other in the cockpit, everyone waits patiently in here because they don't want to get in the middle of it. But even though they are both arguing, the voice they can hear the most is Poe's as usual. His voice rumbles through the Falcons walls traveling through every room. It somehow triggers a memory from his past with Jude..

_"I'm good!" he swears stomping his feet, his face wet with tears of hurt and frustration as Jude doesn't get it. "I don't want to be bad, I'm good!"_

_"No!" she hisses pointing at him with her finger. "You do as I tell you whether it's bad or not **you** listen to me!"_

_Finn sobs shutting his wet eyes and covers his ears to tune her out. He shakes his head repeating himself over and over. "I won't do bad, I won't do bad, I won't do bad, I won't do bad!" he weeps. Jude snatches his arm as he continues to repeat himself and drags him into the dark closet where she locks him. His eyes are still shut, he still whispering the words to himself as he brings his knees to his chest and holds himself. "I won't do bad..I won't do bad..I am good..I am good.."_

_"You are good." a soft voice says over him. "You are good, little one." he feels a warm hand rest on his knee. He opens his eyes unable to see in the darkness. Yet he could see the voice, the woman in all white kneeling in front of him. She smiles at him and he begins to feel safe. He feels her hand rest on his cheek wiping the tears of his face with her thumb. He leans into her touch. "Everything will be alright.."_

"Finn." Jannah calls snapping him out of the memory. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah." he nods. "I was just thinking about Jude. I have a feeling we haven't seen the last of her."

"Really? I usually trust in you 'instincts' but are you sure? We haven't seen or heard from her in months and it's been really quiet."

"You don't find that suspicious? Who knows what she could've been doing all this time, she could be planning something. It all seems..off." he admits crossing his arms.

"I suppose you're right, it is weird." she agrees.

Pretty soon the arguing stopped and it was Poe who would be piloting next to Chewie. With him steering they got there pretty fast. They got off the Falcon into the steaming hot air that Finn did not miss while he was gone. However this time he packed a canteen filled with water so history doesn't repeat itself. The heatwaves travel through the horizon under the boiling sun, even the wind is hot, Finn is already hating it. But Rey, she seems delighted to be back much to his surprise. She walks in front of them, taking in the nostalgic environment, she smiles to herself embracing the wind that blows her hair and drapes. The wind that seemingly flows past her blows the sand in everyone else's face's and eyes.

"Where to Rey?" Poe asks, dusting the sand off his clothes. She turns her head to the side acting as if she forgot they were with her, she faces them squinting her eyes past the sunlight.

"Most of the old ships in the graveyard by Niima Outpost have already been stripped of good parts, the only other place that no one's touched is in the area of sandborers and that's because no one has been able to get across them alive."

"Sandborers?" Jannah questions.

"Sandborers are large creatures of twenty meters long or larger, they are usually seen around dark but remain low under the sand until then." C-3PO informs. 

Poe is suspicious, hands at his hips with his brows furrowed as he debates in his head whether it's worth it. "Those ships..they carry good parts?"

"Oh yeah." she nods. "Me and other scavengers used to rave about it, everything there is worth _a lot._ There's one huge Star Destroyer buried in the sand with good material. I tried to go there with someone once but..they didn't make it." Finn puts his hand on her shoulder to comfort her, she places her hand on his and smiles embracing his sympathy. 

Poe nods his head convinced. "Okay, then we'll go."

"Really? You think risking our lives for just a few spare parts is worth it?" Jannah asks.

"It's not just any parts," Rey argues. "there's some serious stuff in there."

"How do you know? Have you been inside that Star Destroyer?"

She looks down and shakes her head. "No..I almost did. I got a glimpse of what was in there before we were attacked. I haven't gone back since that day..but if we're going to go anywhere for good material it's there."

Then it's settled. Rey leads the way to the famous Star Destroyer that contains so much good material. Finn told Poe earlier about he thinks Jude is up to something, so the main reason of them being there is for weapons. He has a feeling the next time Jude shows up, she's going to come in strong and hard. She already clever enough. It's when the sun begins to set that they finally arrive, just before dark. They stand in front of the borderline. In front of them sits the giant Star Destroyer, among many other crashed ships, buried deep in the sand. There are warning signs in Teedospeak scattered all over the land. With a deep breath taken by all, they make their way towards the big ship first knowing that's where all the good stuff would be. On their way they pass bones and armor from the people who had fought in the Galactic War all those years ago. Finn picks up a blaster buried in the sand and inspects it before putting it in his bag. Everyone else does the same with whatever they think can be good use back at the base.

Finding a way inside the Star Destroyer isn't easy, but once they're in they're set. They land on the command bridge, it's cold inside compared to the rest of the planet. Something takes over Rey. She stands up on a high platform with her lightsaber ignited to bring light to the dark.

"Alright grab everything you need and everything you don't need. I want this place stripped clean or valuables." She demands ordering them.

Chewie roars and salutes to her. Then they begin to work, Rey, Jannah, C-3PO going to one side of the room while Finn, Poe and Chewie work at the other. Doing as she said in taking whatever they need and what they don't. Compared to the girls, the guys don't really gather as much. Rey has been doing it most of her life so there's no excuse for her. It's almost impossible how quick she strips the place clean. They finish really fast because of her and Jannah as well. Still when they're done, the moon is up and the sandborers are out. On top of that there is a storm on its way. So they all stay put in the dark ship until daytime.   
  
Finn sits there on the floor next to Poe, backs against the wall. They watch Jannah and Rey laugh with each other about something. "How's the training going with Rey?" Poe asks.

Finn nods. "Well. I've caught up to her."

"So are you like a Jedi now?"

"No." he shakes his head. "Rey wants me to be, she said she had this vision that I was but..I don't know. I don't think that's my fate."

"Leaving the First Order wasn't your fate either." He shrugs. "You can't depend on fate because it changes _all_ the time. You just gotta do what you feel is right rather than what you think you're supposed to. Thats why I think you should tell Rey that thing that you never told her in the sand." 

"Why do you keep coming back to this?" Finn wonders with a laugh.

"Because _I_ know what you were going to say and - _she_ knows what you were going to say, we just want to hear you say it."

"How do you know what I was going to say?"

"Everyday it gets more and more obvious to not just us but to everyone. Come on - I mean you're with her all the time."

"I'm training with her most of the time!" He excuses. "What so obvious anyway?"

"That you _love_ her." He says in a low voice. Finns heart drops down to his stomach as he freezes, eyes wide at hearing that word - aloud - defined for his feelings for Rey. "She knows it.. _I_ know it..he'll even Chewie knows."

Chewie roars softly with a nod to confirm. Finn just can't believe what he's hearing. Was it that obvious that he kind of - sort of - has feelings for her? If it is why didn't somebody say anything sooner? Why didn't Rey say anything if she knew? Maybe she doesn't know and Poe thinks she does. He doesn't know and it's too much for him to think about.   
  


"Come on Finn just admit it, you love her. You love Rey." He teases moving close to his ear. "You love her. You love her come on."

"No- Poe no."

He moves back, brow perked, challenging him. "You don't love her?"

"No! That's not what I meant-"

"So you _do_ love her?" 

"Ye-" he stops and sighs finding himself look at Rey who is teaching Jannah how to use her lightsaber. "I'm not even sure..that I know what love is.."

"Well," he sits up following his gaze at Rey. "let me make this easier for you. What is it about her that you like? How does she make you feel?"

His shoulders lift up to his ears. "She..she has this spark about her that lights me up inside. She makes me go incredibly numb and there's this warmth that spreads in my heart whenever she smiles. Everything she does is amazing and she doesn't even realize how great she is. I'm not just talking about her being a Jedi or even having the Force, I think she's just..I can't even explain how great of a person she is by herself." 

"Can't explain it huh?" Poe sits himself back against the wall with his arms over his head. "Sounds like love to me."

Slowly, Finn gives in to his feelings. "Maybe it is.."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pardon my lateness with this chapter I got a little bit of writers block while writing.


	9. An Unworthy Future

_It is dark, cold. Finn is standing, his wide eyes are open trying to see through the black abyss around him. He can't blink, he can't open his mouth, he can barely breathe because of his slow his breath is. He is calm, believing he is simply asleep, until he hears it. The cackle of that red lightsaber. He is forced to turn around and his arms go flying behind him as he is pulled forward into the hand of Kylo Ren. His fingers latch on to the skin of his neck, squeezing his throat. Finn can feel his eyes begin to bulge at the pressure as he tries to gasp for air. He feels helpless as the life in him begins to slowly fade away. He looks down at his mask seeing deep within it, it isn't Kylos face behind it. It's Judes. Her yellow eyes glowing with rage, she scrunches her face and squeezes harder around his next. Her hands grow hot and burn through his skin, he feels like he is melting in hot liquid. He wants to scream but he can't, he can't do anything but let it happen. Behind him he sees thousands - maybe even millions of black and yellow troopers with big blasters in their hands and jet packs on their backs. She laughs hysterically and evilly. He hears a holler behind him, it's Rey and..two other people. They sound familiar but he can't put a finger on it. Jude lets go of him and he falls plummeting through the ground-_

Chewie roars and slaps Finn awake with his furry hands startling him out of his sleep. The Wookiee tells him he looked troublesome in his resting state. Finn looks around in confusion, seeing the light from the sun gleaming in through the destroyers windows. Exposing dust particles in the air. It was just a dream he had, but he knew it was more than that. He felt the connection to Judes plan and has a very bad feeling about what she might have done. Next to him sleeps Poe rolled into a ball and ahead of them is Jannah. There is no sign of Rey at all. He looks to his left, then to his right and she isn't visible. He begins to panic at her absence and gets up to look around.

"Master Finn, you're awake!" C-3PO cheers stepping in his path.

Finn shushes him still looking around for his friend who he hopes had fallen asleep somewhere else and didn't get eaten by a sandborer. He looks at the golden droid. "Have you seen Rey?" 

"I'm afraid I have been commanded not to speak of her whereabouts, and she had especially informed me to tell you that everything is alright and she will return soon."

He relaxes knowing he's not going to get anything out of Threepio, perhaps he worries about Rey far too much anyway. The reality is, he can sense her presence still on the planet. She is fine, on a mission to rid of unfinished business. He nods his head. "Okay..but we should get back now. I think I know where Jude is."

"Jude? Why, it feels like I haven't heard that name in ages!" he exclaims. Finn ignores him and walks over to a sleeping Poe. Lightly he places his hand on his shoulder trying to shake him awake. The man isn't easy to wake up so Finn shakes him more aggressively by his shoulders until he sees his eyelashes flutter open.

"Whats going on?" He asks rubbing his eyes as he sits up.

"We've gotta get back to base..I think I know where Jude is."

"What? Jude?" He blinks through squinted eyes and a furrowed brow. Still confused at what is going on. Slowly he regains his sense as he wakes up, his eyes widen a little. He looks around. "Where's Rey?"   
  
"She's fine. She'll meet us at the Falcon."

On the other side of the room, Jannah begins to wake up. Groaning at the ruckus of their voices. "Will you two shut up? I'm trying to sleep!"

"You can sleep on the Falcon we have to go quick." Finn rushes towards her to pull her up, worried about the time they are wasting and what Jude could possibly be doing while they are procrastinating.

"Wait- hold on Finn. I'm gonna need you to explain. What's going on with Jude? Where do you think she is?" Poe asks.

He stops pulling at Jannahs arm and takes a deep breath, realizing how crazy he might look and how confused they must feel about his behavior. "I felt her..she has an army - a big one and they're ready to take over the galaxy. She's been training them all this time on Mustafar."

"Mustafar? Are you sure? We checked there-"

"I'm sure." He promises. "I felt the lava..the heat. I saw the army there are more than we can handle."

"Well I'm sure we can handle it." Jannah assures getting to her feet. "We were successful with the First Order."

Finn shakes his head. "This is different.."

"How so?" Poe questions, bringing his hands to his hips. 

"She..knows we're coming and I know she's thought of every possible outcome of us coming for her. She's waiting for us."

"So what do we do? Do we just - do nothing while she's doing all of this?"

"No..I don't know..yet. But I will. For now we should get back and prepare."

They make their way back to the Falcon safely, with no bother from those freakish sandborers they heard about. Though Finn swore he saw glowing red eyes in the night before he went to sleep. When they retreat back to the ship, Rey isn't there yet. So they wait until she is. Finn sits and focuses on her presence - only to let the group know when she'll be on her way of course - he feels her feet in the sand and something in her hand. Her thumb rubbing against the rough material of the figure in her palm, it feels like a toy of some sort. She looks at it, he can see the curve of a smile pull at her lips and the twinkle in her eye, whatever it is it brings a warmth to her heart. She puts it in her bag and continues her way back to them. When she gets there they make their way back to Ajan Kloss, this time Poe pilots with Chewie - which isn't the best pilot combo.

"You lost!" Finn shouts in excitement as Jannah sighs in defeat shaking her head. He had just beat her in the game of Dejarik.

"How do you always win at this?"

"I'm just that good." He shrugs brushing off his shoulders. "I could let you win if you want to win that bad."

"No, I like to win on my own." She assures. "With a little practice you'll be the one losing."

Finn doubts it. "Sure okay." He nods turning his head. He sees Rey sitting with her back faced towards them, she's looking down at something in her hands. The same thing she was looking at before.

_He opens his mouth to ask her what it is but is stopped by the screams of children, small children hollering in terror. Tears running down their faces as they are pulled through the heat of fire passing by a river of lava that spits hot liquid in the air. Then he is there on Mustafar where they all are. He sees Jude settled in front if her army of troops, hands folded behind her back as she stares upon all of them wearing crimson red. By her side, approaches her sister Taj imitating her posture with a smile on the side of her face._

_"Everything is set up for the guy and his friends, all that's left is to wait for them to arrive and everything else is up will fall in place just as planned." she tells her._

_"Good." Jude nods. "If I didn't know any better I'd say he's on his way with the whole Resistance right now."_

_"I'd hope so," she agrees. "it'd make it easier for us to just wipe the enemy out entirely and get straight to taking over."_

_"Finn!" Rey calls from behind him. He turns around to be an entirely different situation, still on Mustafar. She's running towards him, relief in her eyes as she blinks tears away. Her face is smudged in dirt and she has blood on her head from fighting. He told her to stay back, just like he told everyone else. But no one ever listens. Standing in the middle of a war zone of corpses of Judes troops, he looks to his left to see the body of Taj on the ground, lifeless. To his right is Jude barely grasping onto life, but her strength still gifts her the ability to pick up a blaster. Through a shaky hand she puts her finger on the trigger, aiming the barrel at him. His eyes grow at the sight of his death before him, but Rey follows his eyes as she's running. She sees the blaster, sees Jude squeezing the trigger, she steps in front of her blocking Finn._

_"REY!" he screams reaching out to her. A laser is fired and it pierces through her abdomen, when he gets to her she falls into his arms. The weight of her perishing body drops him to the floor. He cradles her in his arms, eyes growing wet as she struggles to gasp for air. "No no no no no Rey please." he places his hand on her stomach, trying to heal her. He closes his eyes and focuses, tears running down his face._

_She puts her hand on his cheek. "Finn, Finn." she says breathlessly._

_He opens his eyes and looks at her. "Don't worry, I'm gonna save you. You're going to be okay, I'm gonna heal you-"_

_"No." she shakes her head trying to take a deep breath. "You can't.."_

_"Y-yes I can." he stutters, choking on the snot he sniffles through his nose. "I can heal you-"_

_"If you - heal me...you'll die." she blurts harshly. But he doesn't care, as long as she gets to live he'll do anything. "I was already given another chance of life..it's my time."_

_He shakes his head as a tear hands below his eye. "No..I won't let you go. I..I can't do this without you Rey.."_

_"You can..I believe you can." she nods, trying to smile but a tear falls down her temple. She wipes the tear that falls down his cheek with her thumbs."Everything will be alright.." she promises. He's heard that said to him before, but he's too distracted to think about it._

_"No!" he shakes his head again, he puts his hand on her wound trying to heal it. He doesn't care what Rey says, he doesn't care how many chances of life she get's as long as she gets to live. She puts her hand on his as he continues to try, but there is no use. Nothing happens. He feels a sharp pain in his chest, like someone is ripping his heart out with the sharpest knife in the galaxy and squeezing it to dust. He is suddenly hit with other visions of just moments earlier. Before those troops met their fate Poe had met his, Jannah met hers, and Chewie, even C-3PO and BB-8. No..Finn's jaw falls open as he tries to scream through the pain but he can't, it hurts too much to even do that. He looks down at Rey, the last one. He feels the life leave her body, her corpse grows cold and pale. His head falls into her chest, sobbing forever. Hoping that maybe his tears will bring her back, something will bring her back._

_Jude chuckles and coughs, her hand on her stomach as she looks up at the dark sky. "Sometimes it's best..if you have nothing to lose." she turns her head towards him. He doesn't even want to look at her, it's no fair that she get's to live and his friends don't. She doesn't deserve life, she deserves to be punished. Something worse than death, something that'll make her wish she was. Finn lifts his head off her chest as she begins to fade away, he holds her tighter wishing she could stay but there was no point. The only ones alive was him and Jude. He lifts his head up looking at the woman responsible for all his loss since the moment he was born. He grits his teeth, feeling a rage crawl over his skin and possess his good heart. He will avenge his family, no matter what it takes_

_He rises to his feet and approaches the woman on the ground. "You're gonna regret everything you did to me." he chastises, breathing heavily - angrily - through his heaving chest._

_She smiles. "What're you gonna do?" she challenges. There are plenty of things he can do to her, he is on a planet full of lava and Jude happens to have skin that is sensitive to it. He clenches his jaw and raises his arm in the air, her body follows it up as he holds her there. She is terrified. He is stuck on this planet with her since he doesn't know how to pilot the Falcon, so he is going to make her suffer for the rest of his days, because like she said..it's best if you have nothing to lose._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't worry guys, it's only a vision..but still visions can come true..


	10. The Final Defeat

Finn sits there watching Poe hand upgraded blasters to everyone, everyone inspects them with fascination. An exciting moment for the generals, but all Finn can think about is what he saw. He sees his friend Poe against the wall, all the life and personality stripped away from him from a single shot to the chest. He can't let that happen to him, not Poe, not Jannah, not anyone. Chewie, he had fallen in lava. C-3PO tried to help him but the Wookie was to strong and pulled his arm off instead, the blast of the laser handled the rest of the droid as Chewie melted away. Finn closes his eyes reliving the horrors of the future, no. That's not how it's supposed to end, even if he got Jude in the end..she still won. He still lost everything he had.

"Hey," Poe says sitting next to him. "you alright? You haven't said a word since we got back...did you see something?" he suspects.

Finn takes a deep, shaky, breath before nodding his head. Still unable to look at his friend, his eyes gaze at his fingertips that, like his vocal chords, are shaking as well. "I..have to go to Mustafar alone."

"..what? Alone?" he is appalled. "Are you trying to get yourself killed?"

"No. I'm trying to keep _you_ from getting yourself killed, along with Jannah and Rey, and Chewie and everyone else." he explains, not expecting Poe to listen because he never does. "I see how it ends for you guys and I don't want that."

"Finn, I can't really say I know how this works but I can for sure tell you that what you saw isn't sure to happen." he assures. "It's not written in stone, it's just a possible outcome if we do something a certain way. For all we know that was the Force warning you."

"I lost everything Poe..I don't want to risk that." Finn asserts. Eyes still on the fidgeting fingers in his lap.

Poe's rough hand grabs the back of his neck. "We're going with you. Like you said we're in this til the end. I'm not gonna let my best friend fight alone."

His ears perk up at the words and for a moment he forgets about the whole Jude situation. Finn looks at him, flattered that he'd even call him his best friend. He's never had a best friend before but for if he had to pick anyone for the part it would be Poe. Finn just never saw Poe as the type to openly admit to that. A smile grows on his face, he's going to make the best of this moment. "What did you just call me?"

Poe rolls his eyes and shakes his head as Finn looks at him finally. "You heard me."

"Did you just call me..your best friend?"

"I'm not gonna say it twice. But yeah, I did...cause you are. I love you man." he shakes his hand on the back of his neck. He has no idea how touched Finn is by this, those words. Love. He is loved. It almost makes him want Poe to stay back more. He grows emotional at the affection and pulls his best friend in for a hug he knows he doesn't want. He wraps his arms around his back and closes his teary eyes, he squeezes the man tight.

"Thank you Poe.."

"Alright, alright." he says pushing him away. He stands to his feet. "I've gotta finish helping Rose hand out blasters, cause we're going with you. We _all_ are and we could actually use an extra hand in handing them out." he says, trying to get him to join without saying the exact words.

Finn nods his head getting the point. "I get it, I'll help." he concedes as he walks away to continue what he was doing before they spoke. He only saw Poe, Jannah, Chewie, and Rey in his vision. The rest of the Resistance wasn't there at all. But Jude is expecting them all to be there, to 'wipe them out'. There already isn't many of them left, Finn knows they can't lose anymore. At least if they don't make it there will be others to continue on with the legacy. He wants everyone to live, even if it means he won't. As long as they're alive, finally at peace, and Jude is stopped, everything will be alright. 

Finn rushes to Poe before he could get to anyone, grabbing his arm the man looks at him with alarm in his eyes. "We can't bring everyone, that's what she's expecting..she wants to wipe us out."

"Okay..but how're we gonna fight against an army if there's not many of us?"

"We'll be discreet, bring them down one at a time." he explains. "Just trust me on this."

"Okay." he nods. "I trust you."

The two separate, patting each other's shoulders before parting ways, to prepare to leave. Finn goes to Rose. Knowing she hasn't left the planet since they were on Exegol but he could use her help. He sees her speaking to Jannah by Poe's X-wing. But he gets this bad feeling in the pit of his stomach, telling him to leave her there. Seeing Jannah alive, Poe, Chewie, and even Rey is hard after what he saw. Their hearts are beating now, chest heaving with every fresh breath followed by another until their last. Finn doesn't want them to ever take their last. He starts to think that he should go alone. However he knows Jude has probably thought of that as well. He has to bring someone, he can't do this alone. Even if Jude is his problem.

He turns around at the feeling of light behind him, there he sees Rey her hand out as if to tap his shoulder. The usual drapes that sift through the wind of her outfit gone after one of them got her stuck in a tree when they were training once. It was a good thing he was there to catch her fall, but he misses seeing them flow with her figure. Still, she looks stunning as always. She smiles softly, but there is concern in her eyes. "Are you okay? I feel like somethings bothering you."

"Something is." He admits in a low voice, he looks around to assure no one is listening but doesn't want to take any chances. He holds out his hand to her and she takes it without question. Leading her away from the hangar and into a more quiet spot to speak. They find a corner far from everyone, it is quiet, Finn grabs a box for her and gestures for her to sit.

Rey looks up at him, confusion and worry in her eyes. "Finn? What is it?"

He pushes his fingers against each other, closing his eyes. There is no proper way to say any of what he wants to say. So he just has to drop it, let it slip out of his mouth like a waterfall. "I saw us on Mustafar, it was just You, Poe, Chewie, Jannah, and I. I don't know how but..every single one of you were killed. You were the last to die and for a while I thought you could make it but..you wouldn't let me heal you. Before I could do anything you were already fading away and..and I was alone. With nobody but Jude to torment me..I turned to the dark side, I felt it. All the good in me was stripped away the moment you disappeared because I had nothing - no one to fight for. I became the villain Jude always wanted me to become." He confesses.

To his surprise Rey doesn't give the reaction he expects from her. She stands up and takes a step closer to him, grabbing onto his hands. "That won't happen, I promise. I won't let you go to the dark..just like you didn't let me."

"But Rey you weren't there, there was no one to stop me. I was easily seduced, like it was in me all along and I just needed one push to get there."

"That's all it takes for the dark to take over. Just one push. Its the same for everyone Finn. But not everyone has friends to help them, you do. We'll get through this, I know it's hard but it's almost over."

His gaze is on the dirt he stands on, eyes glazing in tears as he relives the emotions he felt from the vision. "I just don't want to lose anyone."

Rey brings her hands to his shoulders and lifts his head up by his chin, forcing him to look her in the eyes. "You're not losing anyone." she promises. Just then, for some odd reason, he finally finds the color of her eyes. Gold. A fiery gold that strikes a wave of heat in his heart. The color of the planet Jakku when the sun is setting and the sky reflects the beige of the sand, it melts with the suns yellow and becomes a striking gold. He sees the sunset in her eyes; it glimmers of hope. It's breathtaking. He quickly snaps himself out of the trance her irises put him in and nods his head, hoping she's right about what she says.

"We should go now before it's too late." he suggest, her hands slide down his chest as he backs away to go to the Falcon. He can feel her eyes watching him with concern, words stuck on the tip of her tongue that she didn't get to say to him while he was standing in front of her. Fear had kept her from speaking her mind, now he may never know what she wanted to say. But he might have an idea. After all they are connected, he can feel the emotion without the expression of words to confirm.

When Finn gets on the ship, he sits down and takes a deep breath. His shaking hands are clammy, his stomach is twisting, turning, and gargling in his stomach with every gulp he takes. He is anxious about where this will go, there's only two ways this can end with victory or loss. He takes another deep breath and thinks about all those storm troopers she's holding. Those mindless robots with no freedom to think or do as they please, they had never got the chance to grow up - never get to have a family. They'll never know what it's like to be loved or appreciated or to care about someone deeply. That's something everyone should experience in their lives and he wants them to have them because they deserve it. They didn't get to choose what life to live, they were forced into war. Finn wants to make sure that never happens again. He watches everyone else board the Falcon. Then they're ready to go.

When they finally arrive and step out, much like Jakku, they are greeted with a heat. But this heat is far more intense then any heat Finns ever experienced. The planet is scorching with unbearable heat from the boiling lava just below where they stand. The steaming waves of heat wiggle in the distance, making it difficult to see very far. But Finn knows which way to go. The group follows his lead, trudging through the black concrete that sizzles and hisses with every weight of pressure applied to it. Eventually he sees the white armor of the stormtroopers who are all aligned. He stops, and everyone behind him pauses. Following him as he moves to a hidden area where he can get a better view. He crouches behind a large black rock.

"What do you want us to do?" Poe asks crouching next to him. 

"Nothing yet." he assures. "I'm gonna go first, I'll give a signal when I need you." he stands to leave but Rey grabs his arm to stop him. Her eyes are glowing with fear. They all know this is his fight, but they also know that it isn't easy fighting alone.

"Are you sure you can do this on your own?"

He looks down to think about it, of all the ways this can end up. If he wants to beat Jude he has to think like her, he knows this would never cross her mind. He looks into her eyes and nods. "I am."

"If I hear or see anything out of that throws me off I'm shooting," Poe asserts. "and we're coming for you."

Finn hopes that wont happen, that's the only thing he can depend on at the moment. Quickly, he runs towards the crowd keeping a low profile by staying behind rocks. He looks for Jude, that's who he has to deal with first. Once she is finished, everything else will be easy. He follows the direction the troops are looking in, knowing that Jude is what they're all paying attention to. However it is suspiciously quiet, she isn't giving any speech or anything. It is silent, almost quiet enough for them to hear the hissing of his footsteps in the black dirt. He looks back at his friends, seeing their heads peaking out from the rock they hide behind. They are still safe and that calms him down a little. Then he sees her and his muscles tense.

In front of a fiery waterfall of lava she stands with her hands folded behind her back. She smiles contently as her sister leaves her. It is so hard seeing her again especially after what he saw. It triggers a rage that crawls under his skin and wires a malevolent beat in his heart. His closed jaw tightens as he clenches his fist, wanting to end her right now before she could get to his friends. But that's not how he wants this to be done. That's not how this is going to end. He closes his eyes and braces himself.

"HEY!" He hollers revealing himself. All the troops aim their blasters at him at the same time, preparing to fire. Jude holds her hand out silently instructing them to stay put. She smiles at him, the same testing smile she had in his vision. 

"I knew you'd come." she gibes. "Where's your company?"

"It's just me." he lies slowly approaching her. "This fight is between me and you."

"There is no fight here, I'm just a woman trying to make a dream come true and _you're_ in my way." she retorts putting her hands on her hips. "This could easily be resolved with you letting me do what I need to do."

"No." her eyes go wide at the word and her pupils shrink. She clenches her jaw and flares her nostrils, fingers digging into her hips in aggravation. He knows she hates being told no, he remembers that, that's exactly why he said it. "Either you stop on your own or I will make you."

She laughs. "You ought to be foolish if you think you can beat me alone, and you must be even more foolish if you think you can stand a chance against my army."

"No." he says again shaking his head. He feels her grow more tense at the word being said again. "I'm not the fool here. Just give up, I'm giving you one last chance to walk away." he brings his hand to his side, resting the tips of his fingers on the blaster that he is waiting to use at any moment. Though it would be a death wish to shoot with all these blasters pointed at him.

"I'm not the one who should be walking away, but if you don't want to go so be it." she looks towards her army of troops. "Fire." she orders.

Quickly Finn ducks and rolls for cover as shots are fired towards him. This is not how it's supposed to go, but he couldn't have expected less from her. Still, he couldn't say he didn't try. He peaks his head out from undercover to find Jude no longer standing where she was. He ducks back down when a laser is shot at him. He doesn't want to do it, but he has no choice. He pulls out his blaster and shoots at whoever is in the way of him. Lasers are flying everywhere as he tries to pass by to find her. He falls off his feet at the impact of a laser grazing his shoulder. For a second he panics, but the wound isn't severe. 

Finn gets back to his feet when he isn't a target anymore, he sees his friends behind the crowd shooting and killing the troops. Rey uses her lightsaber to fight any who come for her. But there are too many of them, some grab at Poe and Jannah to hold them down. However Chewie is too large for them to capture, he swings at them knocking them down with his large arms and shoots.

"NO!" Finn screams pushing his arms out. His voice echoes through the planet like a wave. Everyone in front of him falls in the direction like dominos. He has no idea he could do that. His friends look at him with worry in their eyes. "Don't..kill them." He demands.

He lifts his head up at all the troops, still sensing vague emotions from them as they get to their feet. Something takes over him, he feels his blood spiral in his veins and his soul grow warm. He knows what he has to do. "Do you know the truth? About how you got to where you're standing? You had families, parents, brothers, and sisters who loved you with all their hearts and you were taken from them. Doesn't it bother you that you don't have someone who cares for you? To hold you when you're sad or to make you smile? Don't you wonder what it's like to be loved by someone? I did, that's why I quit being a stormtrooper and ran til I found a family of my own." He looks to his friends who smile at him. "I found people who love me, respect me, care for me. Who ask me if I'm okay when I'm feeling down. They're there for me through everything while Jude is not. She is using you for her own power. She took you from those families, she took your childhood, took your dreams before you can even have them. But you can still stop this, all you have to do is put down those blasters because you deserve to _live_ , to love not fight." He preaches.

There is silence, only ambient sound being the lava fall gargling and sizzling into the pool of hot liquid behind him. Finn gulps, he knows that of his speech didn't work it's not going to be good for them. The moment grows intense as he scans the crowd, seeing Poe and Jannah still held hostage and Rey with her lightsaber still ignited. Then, suddenly, the troopers release Poe and Jannah and the blasters are placed down to their feet. Finns eyes grow teary and his heart aches with joy of a moment he didn't know he's been waiting for his entire life. They all put their hands on their helmets and take them off, an action that is forbidden, revealing their faces. He looks upon every single one of them, all so different from each other, so vulnerable. In their eyes he finally sees innocence and..a glimmer of hope. As if his words had taken them out of the cage they were trapped in all these years. A tear rolls down his face, he did this. He's their hero. 

"NOOOOO!" Screams a voice from above. Finn turns around to see Jude on top of the lava fall with fury in her eyes as she bit down on her lip. She aims her blaster at him and shoots immediately. He flinches covering his face with his arms but the blast doesn't hit him. In fact it doesn't land at all. Slowly he peaks from the space between his arms and sees the hit laser in front of him. Frozen. He looks behind him to see Rey with her hand out, she stopped it. He nods a silent thank you to her then moves out the way of it to climb up to where Jude is.

His friends catch up to him, trying to figure out how he's going to handle the situation. "What're you going to do to her?" Poe asks clutching onto his belt.

"I'm gonna make sure she never kidnaps again." He states. His eyes go to Jannah and Chewie. "She has some children hostage, I want you guys to go and get them. I'm sure the troops know where they are."

Chewie roars and Jannah nods before running to go look for the lost children, Poe joins them. Rey steps forward, putting herself in his view. "What do you need me to do?"

"Come with me." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was going to put everything in this chapter but it's already long as it is, so the ending will be in the next.


	11. A Happy Ending

Jude fires her blaster at them as they try to get up to her. She fires so much they can't even climb up. Finn uses the Force to yank the blaster out of her hands and pull her down to their level. She crawls backwards as Finn approaches her, fear in her eyes as she catches a heavy breath. The ground is hot, hurting the sensitive skin of her hands and creating forever scars worse than the one he's given her as a child. But she is too afraid to react to it. For once _she_ is afraid. He knows what the woman is thinking, death is coming her way. But he will not kill her. Because of her that's how he was raised, upon death. His vision may not have came true on some behalf but there is one thing that can. There are worse things to fear than death and Finn will give her that. Suddenly she sneers and snickers a hysterical laugh that angers him. She throws her head back laughing into the sky. That's when he realizes that she laughs when she is afraid.

"You're gonna kill me? Finally gonna do something I've been asking from you since you were a child?" She questions. Since he was young she's been trying to get him to kill anything alive, one time she asked him to kill her just to see if he was at the level evil she wanted him to be. 

"No." He says again. Her fingers dig into the soft patch of black dirt on the ground, exposing her skin to lava. She grunts trying not to scream, but her fear has turned to terror. He extends his hand out to her and she looks at it. "Worse..I'm going to make sure you live for a very very long time."

"Let her go!" Demands a hostile voice from behind him. Finn turns around to see Taj holding Rey back with a blaster to her neck. His eyes grow wide as his heart drops immediately, he tries to move to do something - anything. But she points her blaster at him. "Don't move!" 

"Taj..I thought you were on our side. I thought you wanted your sister to be good.."

She shakes her head. "You think I'd turn against my family? Sure we argue but in the end our blood is one and the same. I'm the one who planned all of this, not her."

"That's not true." Jude argues. "You only helped-"

"I'm talking!" Taj shouts. "Do you want me to save your ass or not?" she rolls her eyes and continues her story. "She didn't stop looking for you after you were taken, and when she heard the great FN-2187 had escaped she thought it was some sort of sign. I didn't know why she was so obsessed then but I do now. When I first saw you I could see the power you didn't even know you had. Something told me you were the one my sister has been searching for and if it was true..you're much more of a threat than anything. I doubted that until I saw what you guys did to her camp. Then you took her."

"She took innocent people-" Rey speaks before the blaster is pushed further into her neck.

"I'm not talking to you!"   
  
Finn doesn't like where this is going at all. He feels a tingle in the Force telling him to look at Rey. He looks at her eyes and she tells him something without talking. He looks down seeing her hand hovering over her lightsaber. A weapon he hasn't used since the night he hurt his back. He knows what he has to do but he isn't sure if he'll be successful. But it's now or never and he doesn't want Rey to get hurt, he already lost her once. He looks at her and she nods once assuring him that it'll be alright. He begins to reach out his hand but before the saber can fly to it he is suddenly grabbed by Jude. 

"SHOOT EM!" She shouts, holding him up like a target. He doesn't think Taj will do it until he sees her finger begin to squeeze the trigger.

"NO!" He shrieks pushing the blaster into her through the Force. Her finger still pulls at the trigger but the laser hits her instead of Rey. She ducks down for cover as Finn calls her saber to his hand. He ignites it and spins around swinging the hot sword behind him, slicing across Judes right cheek all the way to her left eye. She screams and falls to the ground as he runs to Rey, dropping her lightsaber to the side like he did in the snow on Starkiller Base. "Are you okay!?" He asks checking her for any wounds.

"Yes." She nods looking into his eyes. She holds onto his arms and for a moment they have a moment. He wants to hug her, he's glad to see her alright. But now isn't the time.

"Taj! Taj!" Jude yells crawling towards her sister, who lays on a ground that begins to sink into lava. It hisses and pops as the weight of her body sinks further and further down. She grabs her sisters hand and tries to pull her up. "You will not die on me! I need you sister, you're all I have!" She cries pulling her sister up to cradle her in her arms and cry into her dying sisters chest. Just like he did in his vision.

As horrible as she is, it hurts his heart to see her like this. Finn looks at Rey who looks at him. They have the same idea in their heads. They both rise to their feet and go to the crying woman. She looks up at them, face drenched in tears as the ground she's been sitting on begins to cave in from the pressure of her weight. "Stay away!"

"We can heal her." He promises. "But you have to come with us."

She looks back down at her sister. A tear hanging from her eye. "She's all I have. The only family I've got left and you...shot her." She bites.

"What I did isn't half as bad as what you did to my parents nor the parents of every other trooper here. But if you don't want us to heal her..she can just die here-"

"NO!" She grabs at his arm tight, her hands are dry and burned from the hot rocks of the ground. He looks into her yellow eyes seeing a vulnerability. "Please." She begs. 

Rey puts her hand on his shoulder assuring him that she is there for him, whatever he does. "Do what you have to."

  
Then it is done. Finn did what he felt was right rather than what he thought he should do. When they return back to base a few more ships come in containing the ex storm troopers. A group in which Finn, Jannah and her ex trooper friends will help become more human by teaching them to express their feelings. Along with them are some children who didn't have any families to go back to. Much like Finn and the others. Rey likes children, so she does her best to make them feel better about their loss while Maz entertains them by telling stories of amazing people she's met. It seems like everything is suddenly quiet after his decision. He feels the Force finally relax from the tension he didn't know it had all this time.

Finn feels good, like the galaxy at peace. For the first time, everything _is_ alright. The sun is shining through the trees as the children smile for the first time in a long time. He watches the line of ex stormtroopers head to their new quarts with their new clothes in their hands. He can't wait to show them how colorful the world is outside of war. He stands there with his arms crossed watching her through the glass windows of the medic room. She sits there with her chin on her intertwined fingers of her cuffed hands as she watches over her unconscious sister. Finn and Rey healed her as much as they could, but her burns were too severe to heal all the way. At least she still has a family, even if they aren't interactive. Eventually, when they understand their emotions more, the ex stormtroopers can confront her about it one by one until she realizes what a horrible thing she's done and how lucky she is to at least have one piece of family left.

"You didn't kill her," a voice says next to him. He looks down to see Maz with her arms crossed staring through the window with him. "why?" she asks. He has a feeling she knows but she wants to hear him say it. 

"If I killed her, I would be the exact person she's always wanted me to be." He looks into the lens of her enlarged eyes. "There would be no difference between us."

She nods contently. "Spoken like a true hero..maybe even like a Jedi." She smiles at him before leaving him to speak to her favorite Wookie who she refers to as her boyfriend. He watches Chewie roar happily at her as they engage in a wholesome conversation.

Just then Finn is interrupted by a call from the Force. It's Rey. He follows her presence down the stone path to where he usually sees her meditating if the forest is too loud. The wind passes through the trees and shuffled into leaves. Two young girls that they rescued run past him grinning and laughing with flowers in their hair. He smiles at how happy they are despite the situation they were just in. Eventually he sees the familiar lime green grassy field lit by the suns rays. He hears the tune Rey's mother used to sing to her, only this time it is accompanied by a dozen other little voices. That's when he sees them.

All the children huddled in a circle, surrounding the light of hope that is Rey. She shines brighter than he's ever seen before and for a moment - he hears her giggle. He has never heard her laugh before, but he knows from this day on he wants to hear it for the rest of his life. The children back away from her as he steps closer, revealing her stunning appearance. Her dark brown hair is no longer in its familiar buns but hanging by her shoulders under a crown of white and yellow flowers over her head. Her teeth are showing, but not to any threat, out of happiness. She's smiling so brightly that her eyes have mimicked the grinning shape of her mouth, with the twinkle of hope as she looks upon the children who watch her in awe. There are bands of flowers on her arms and a flower necklace hanging below her neck. She looks absolutely wonderful.

When the younglings notice him, they run towards him with flower accessories in their hands and for a moment he is a afraid of what they might do. But he feels the good intentions in their hearts, beating with joy and innocence that he has granted to them. He laughs as they hug him and kneels down for them to put a crown on his head. Like a prince. Rey smiles down at him, keeping her eyes on his as he gets to his feet. They gaze at each other for a while, he can see she has something to say to him. She looks down at the children who just watch them curiously, waiting for them to do something. 

"Let's play a game," she suggests to them. They cheer in excitement and look at her with large smiles and wide eyes. "Finn and I are going to hide and you all have to find us!"

Finn looks at her, unsure of where she's going with this. Before he could ask she grabs his hand and pulls him deep into the forest as the children give them a head start. Finn skips over sticks and rocks as Rey continues to drag him further in, not realizing how many branches shes running him into. Suddenly, she stops at a tree. Her head falling back as she looks at the height, it is so tall the leaves from other trees hide the top of it. She begins to climb it and Finn has no choice but to follow her, unless he wants to be found. Together they climb up, using their abilities to jump to branches they normally aren't able to reach. Rey stops and sits at a branch that sits just above a sheet of leaves with enough space to see the children searching when they get close enough. Finn crawls on the branch and sits himself next to her letting his legs hang below.

"They're never gonna find us up here!" he chuckles playfully. He hears Rey huff a smile at his words, but he can still sense something on the tip of her tongue. She wants to say something, to confess something that's been itching at her since she's said something else.

"Finn?" she calls. He looks at her, her eyes gazing upon the leaves that flow with the small winds under their feet. "Remember when I said that Ben wasn't the first person I kissed?"

His heart drops at the reminder of her kissing Ben and he is suddenly rushed with all the emotions he felt from the last time they discussed it. But he nods his head, awaiting for her to get to the point. 

She looks at him and smiles softly. "You were."

Finn's appalled by this. Whatever did she mean? They kissed? When? Why can't he remember? "Wh- how? When?" he asks, pegging her with questions. If what she says is true he would certainly remember.

"It was after Kylo knocked you down, when we returned back to base on D'Qar. I stayed with you as much as I could, but I then had to leave. Before I did, I thanked you and..I kissed your head." she confesses. It's no kiss on the lips but a kiss is a kiss and he remembers her saying that it meant something when they were arguing, that the kiss was with someone she really cared about. Now thinking about it, he can see her kiss his forehead. He _remembers_ her doing so. _She was sitting next to him, gazing longingly into his closed eyes waiting for any movement. She wants him to wake up, she wants to see the man who grabbed her hand even if she could run on her own, the man that came back for her on Starkiller base._

_"We'll see each other again, I believe that." she rises and bends down to plant a long soft kiss on his forehead. One that he can feel just thinking about, as her lips rest there she makes a wish that he will be well in time, he will be safe. She then gets up, grabs her staff and leaves wanting to turn around but knowing if she does she might never leave his side. "Thank you my friend."_

Finn drifts out of the memory, his fingers resting in the spot she had kissed. It is warm there, almost like her lips never left. He feels guilty for not telling her what he meant to tell her all along. She's been holding in this secret for a while, afraid to say it out loud for - a reason he knows. It's like what Poe said, he knows it, she knows it, but it's better when hearing it aloud. "I lied." he blurts.

Her eyes grow wide and her eyebrows form a wrinkle in the space between them. "What?"

"I never actually told you what I wanted to tell you in the sand." he admits, now being the one gazing down at the leaves. "I'm going to tell you something Rey. But it's not going to be a surprise, I know you've felt it and that everyone here has felt it. I know you want to hear it from me, so I'm just going to say it." he swings his leg over to the other side of the branch so he can face her. Her eyes are sparkling as she swallows hard. "I never told you.. I love you." he reveals flat out. It is hard to say but he did it and it feels good to finally let it out. "I will always love you, forever."

Rey is frozen staring into his eyes, jaw open ajar. He isn't sure she is breathing and by the look of her face he doesn't think that she feels the same at all, maybe he read the intimacy wrong. It happened with him and Rose before when he thought they were just friends and she kissed him, maybe he thought Rey liked him as more but for her it's only a friendship they share. Maybe he came on a little too strong and she just wasn't expecting that. He didn't mean to make it weird, he can always say he loves her as a friend. Even if there a lot more to it than that.

"I- I didn't mean to make you-"

She doesn't let him finish when she grabs his vest and pulls him close to her, he is startled for a moment but something in him tells him there is nothing to fear. Slowly, they lock their lips together in a case they've both been yearning for for a long time. The kiss is tender and long, neither of them wanting to release from the others soft warm lips. Her grip tightens against his leather vest as he combs his fingers through her silky hair. They wish it last longer, but they need air. They separate their mouths from each other, keeping their faces close.

"No ones ever said anything like that to me before." she says resting her hands on his chest. "I love you too, forever."

A smile pulls at Finns lips and he can't help but grin at her. He almost wants to cry at how lovely she makes him feel. Just then they hear the children past by the tree they're in to find them. They giggle and hide further in the tree. They look at each other and smile before separating to hide in different spots - more easier for the children to find them so they're not hiding all day and night.

His job was done, he had passed his test and become more than just a hero. But a leader and an icon. He soon agrees to become a Jedi with Rey, now wearing a white robe and even makes his own double sided white lightsaber that the children have become fascinated with. He helps raise them and teaches the ex stormtroopers to be more human. Pretty soon, the troopers find their own families in each other and even adopt some of the children. Those who don't get adopted stay at the base with them and get recruited over time. Though some want to be a Jedi like Finn and Rey, so they begin to train them as the next generation of good Jedi. Jude sees all of this happen and slowly feels remorse for the things she's done, however her guilt wont set her free. She will grow old knowing that she is a malevolent person. As for now, Finn, co-general of the Resistance, Jedi, and Prince of Phorro will, along with his friends, be the ones to keep the galaxy safe because the Force is with them. And the Force is with him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's it! That's the end! Let me know what you think, I know I'm not always good at endings but I tried to make it as sensible as possible.


End file.
